


Trapped

by DeckofDragons



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Bill Trapped in a Human Body, M/M, Older Pines Twins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-27
Updated: 2016-11-29
Packaged: 2018-05-09 17:31:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 34
Words: 67,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5549240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeckofDragons/pseuds/DeckofDragons
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bill gets tricked by a mysterious necromancer who traps him in a human body. After escaping he goes to Dipper for help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Knock on the Door

 

It was a cold January night a few days after New Year’s and Dipper was in his living room watching some T.V. before heading to bed. He’d been living in his own place for almost half a year now. He was twenty-one and living off the proceeds he got from publishing his first book. Mabel lived only a few houses down so they could visit each other often.

He got up turning the T.V. off and started to head for bed when he heard knocking at his front door. It was too late at night for it to be door to door salesmen or religious people, not to mention the fact that it was snowing pretty hard and no one in their right mind would be out in it. Still though he had no idea who it could be since Mabel would have just walked in since she had a spare key and he didn’t really have any other friends. He thought briefly about not answering it but then he heard the knocking again, louder and more insistent this time.

“Coming,” he called approaching the door.

Opening it he saw a young blonde man standing there wearing woefully inadequate clothing for the cold weather. He looked to be about the same age as Dipper, maybe a little younger, and Dipper had never seen him before.

“Hey Pine Tree, long time no see,” he said with a smile despite shivering violently.

Only one person, or demon rather, called him ‘Pine Tree’: Bill Cipher. The demon who had caused him and Mabel nothing but trouble when they were kids.

“Bill what are you doing here? And who are you possessing and why?” Dipper crossed his arms.

“Well that’s the thing Pine Tree, I’m not possessing him or at least not intentionally. Look can I just come in and then I’ll explain,” Bill said.

Dipper thought for a moment about letting him stand out there in the cold but with the door open like this he was letting the freezing air in the house. So with a sigh he stepped aside allowing Bill to enter.

“What do mean you’re not ‘intentionally possessing’ him?” he asked as he closed the door.

“Well this is a bit embarrassing but I was trapped, tricked into this stupid meat suit, I can’t leave it,” Bill grumbled making himself at home on Dipper’s couch.

“Wait what? How did that happen?” Dipper was beginning to suspect this might be a trap.

“A necromancer summoned me saying he wanted to make a deal but when we shook hands he did something to me. He pulled me into this meat suit and trapped me in it somehow and I need you to find a way to get me out.”

“How was a ‘necromancer’ able to trap you? That doesn’t make any sense. Is this like a trick or something?”

“You think I would lie about something like this Pine Tree? If I wanted to trick you I would do it without making myself look like a fool.”

Bill was right there was no way he would come up with a lie that made him look anything less than all powerful. And Bill did sound genuinely upset and angry.

“Alright fine, but if that is true how did the necromancer trap you in there?”

“I don’t know! He did something and used some runes that I’ve never seen before,” Bill clenched his fist and hit the couch’s arm rest.

Dipper was stunned, how could Bill not know something? He had always had the impression that Bill was basically omnipotent but here was saying he didn’t know something. How was that possible?

“Alright then, why did this necromancer trick you into a body?”

“To study me and do tests and stuff, as long as I’m in a body I can’t fight him,” Bill said still clearly very angry about it.

“Okay, what do you want me to do about it? I assume that’s why you came here isn’t it to get me to do something about it.”

“If you can find a way to remove the writing on my body I’ll be free and then I can get vengeance in my own time,” Bill said.

“What writing?” Dipper asked.

“This,” Bill said pulling his shirt off revealing his bare chest covered in strange black markings. They looked a bit like tattoos but deeper somehow. The way they were arranged made them look like some kind of writing, it reminded Dipper of how Japanese or Chinese was written out, but in all his years of study had never seen anything even remotely resembling this kind of writing before.

“I tried to cut them out but nothing seems work.”

Upon closed inspection Dipper saw cut marks through some of the black markings made by someone’s fingernails, Bill’s probably, but the markings themselves showed no sign of damage. Another thing he noticed was that Bill had large dark bruises around his wrists, as if he’d been struggling against handcuffs for a long period of time.

“What happened to your hands?”

“None of your business,” Bill snapped at Dipper as he pulled his shirt back on making sure the thin sleeves covered his wrists.

Dipper decided to ignore Bill attitude for now and instead asked “And you say you’ve never seen these kinds of runes before?”

“No, I haven’t and it makes me angry,” Bill said hitting the arm rest again.

From the look on Bill’s face Dipper guessed it probably made him a little afraid to.

“Okay, so where’s the necromancer now?” Dipper asked.

“South somewhere, hiding in a cemetery.”

“Okay, which cemetery? And how far away is it?” Dipper was thinking he could drive down there tomorrow and see what was going on.

“I didn’t have time to check its name before I left,” Bill said probably not wanting to say he didn’t know.

“Okay, tomorrow if the roads aren’t too bad we’re going down to this cemetery and I’m going to talk to this necromancer,” Dipper was planning on bringing Mabel along too just in case it was a trap. “Which I guess means you’re going to have to sleep on my couch tonight unless you have somewhere else you can crash.”

Dipper didn’t fancy letting the demon stay in his house but he couldn’t kick Bill out in the cold where he would most likely freeze to death before the night was through. So for now he would just have to put up with it.

“Can’t I sleep on a bed?” Bill asked sounding a little pitiful.

“No, I don’t have a guest room so the couch is your only option.”

“Ugh, fine. But uh do you have anything I can eat? I’m starving,” Bill said.

With a sigh Dipper went into the kitchen to heat up the leftover chicken he’d had for supper that night. Bill followed him and began poking around in the drawers and cupboards seeming to be looking for something. Annoyed Dipper watched him for a few seconds before asking him what he was looking for.

“A lighter or anything that can make a flame,” Bill replied not even bothering to glance at Dipper.

“Why?”

“I’m going to try to burn the marks off.”

“Well I don’t have a lighter,” Dipper lied, he did have a candle lighter Mabel had given him for Christmas last year, but he didn’t trust Bill to not burn the house down with it.

Just then the microwave beeped and Dipper pulled out the plate of reheated chicken and handed it to Bill, who ate like someone who hasn’t eaten in days. When he was finished Dipper took the plate from him, washed it and put it back in the cupboard.

“Alright now it’s time to finally sleep,” Dipper said suddenly feeling exhausted. “I think there’s a spare blanket in the closest you can use.”

Bill again followed him to the closest saying “Are you sure I can’t sleep on the bed and you sleep on the couch?”

“No, it’s my house and my bed so you have to sleep on the couch,” Dipper said pulling out the garishly bright yellow blanket his grandma had made him for Christmas last year. He’d never been a fan of the colour yellow so he’d banished it to the closest until now when he tossed at Bill.

“Fine then,” Bill said grumpily catching it.

“Good, now good night,” Dipper said before turning off the lights and heading to his room at last.


	2. A Cold Dark Place

The next day when Dipper woke up and went out into the living room Bill was still sleeping, peacefully curled up underneath the borrowed blanket. Not wanting to talk to him right now Dipper was careful to be as quiet as possible so as not to wake him.

He decided he should probably call Mabel first, before doing anything else with Bill. He went into the kitchen and dialed her number.

“Hello, who is it?” Candy answered after the second ring.

Mabel, Candy, and Grenda all lived in the same house, sharing rent, just a few houses down from his own. Dipper had lived with them too until recently when his book had brought in enough money for him to get a place of his own. He hadn’t minded living with them but Candy and Grenda did get on his nerves sometimes especially when all three girls stayed up late giggling and talking about boys. It had made it hard for Dipper to get any writing done.

“Hi Candy, can I talk to Mabel please?” Dipper said.

“Yeah, sure, just give me a sec,” Candy said before Dipper heard her put the phone down presumably to run and get Mabel.

It was a few more minutes before Dipper heard someone picking up the phone and Mabel’s voice saying, “Hey Dipper what’s up?”

“I need your help with something. It’s not really something I can explain over the phone. Do you think you could come over real quick?”

“Yeah, sure but are you all right? You sound worried.”

“Yeah, I’m fine, but I really do need your help with something,” Dipper said.

“Alright I’ll be over in like five minutes. If you could make some coffee that’d be great,” Mabel said before hanging up.

Dipper put the phone back in its cradle and started up the coffee pot. He hoped that Bill would stay asleep at least until he’d had a chance to explain to Mabel what was going on.

Five minutes later Mabel walked in wearing her large pink snow coat with matching boots, knitted hat and gloves. She paused when she saw Bill who thankfully was still asleep.

“Who’s he?” she whispered as Dipper led her into the kitchen.

“That’s Bill Cipher, I’m sure you remember him,” Dipper then went on to explain what Bill had told him last night. As he talked he poured them both some coffee making sure to put lots of sugar and creamer in hers.

“Wow, so that means there’s someone or something more powerful than Bill?” Mabel said taking a sip of her coffee.

“Yeah, I’m going to head down to the cemetery he mentioned later and see if the necromancer’s still there and I would like it if you could come to in case it’s a trap or something,” Dipper said.

“Of course I’ll come, but do you think it could be a trap? I mean like would Bill really come up with a lie like that?”

“I don’t know, he was pretty angry last night when he was talking about it. So he’s either a good actor or telling the truth,” Dipper shrugged.

“Hey Shooting Star, what are you doing here?” Bill said walking into the kitchen. He still had the blanket wrapped around his shoulders. “Is that coffee? Can I have some?”

“She’s here because I called her,” Dipper said begrudgingly handing Bill a cup of coffee.

When Bill reached out from underneath the blanket to take it he revealed the bruising on his wrists again, it stood out even more in the bright kitchen light.

“What happened you your arms?” Mabel asked.

“Nothing,” Bill said quickly adjusting the blanket so it could cover his wrists even while he held the coffee cup. “So you said you’ll head down to the cemetery today to see that I’m telling the truth? And then you’ll help find a way to free me?”

“Yeah we’re heading down to the cemetery, but this better not be a trap,” Dipper said glaring at Bill.

“Trust me Pine Tree it’s not, as much as I wish it were.”

 

Later after breakfast Dipper had them load up into his rusty old car. He had Bill sitting up front so he could tell Dipper where to go to reach the cemetery.

“Buckle up Bill,” Dipper said starting the car.

“Do I have to?” Bill still had the blanket wrapped around his shoulders, but he didn’t have a coat so Dipper guessed that was okay.

“Yeah, Bill you have buckle up, it’s the rules of the road. Besides Dipper has never been the best at driving in snow so it’s probably a good idea,’ Mabel said from her spot in the back.

“Hey, you crashed Mom’s car way more than I did, even when there wasn’t any snow on the road,” Dipper said.

“Yeah, when we were learning. I haven’t had wreck since I got my driver’s license while you dear brother have had two.”

 Mabel also didn’t have a car of her own either so she had less opportunities to get into a crash in the first place. Beside the two ‘wrecks’ Dipper had been in were only minor fender benders and mostly weren’t his fault, probably. Or least if the other cars hadn’t been there Dipper wouldn’t have hit them.

“Alright if Pine Tree really is such a poor driver,” Bill said pulling his seat belt across and snapping it home.

“I’m not a poor driver,” Dipper protested putting the car in reverse.

And as if to prove him wrong the car slid on the icy driveway right into his mailbox. The mailbox he had just had replaced from the last time he’d run it over a week ago.

“Wow Pine Tree, are you sure you shouldn’t let Shooting Star drive?” Bill said grinning.

“There was ice and it was practically placed in the middle of the driveway,” Dipper knew it was a sorry excuse but didn’t care. “Anyway which way to this cemetery?”

Bill pointed to the right and Dipper started driving. He made sure to drive carefully on the icy roads so Bill and Mabel couldn’t find any more excuses to make fun of his less than perfect driving.

It took them about an hour before Bill told him to drive down a side road that lead to a snow covered cemetery. Dipper pulled over and parked the car, and he and Mabel climbed out.

“You’re not coming?” Mabel asked him.

“No, I’ll wait here for you. The back of the mausoleum has a fake wall you can move, behind it is a staircase leading to where the necromancer should be,” Bill said.

Dipper wasn’t sure if he trusted Bill alone in the car but there wasn’t really much he could do about it. Unless he left Mabel here to watch him but then there was the risk that he’d encounter trouble in the cemetery and would need her help. So he was just going to have to deal with leaving Bill alone for a little while.

“Oh, and one more thing, can you guys not tell him I’m out here?” Bill said as they were about leave.

“Sure thing,” Mabel said taking the lead.

The gate leading to the cemetery was wide open, there was snow piled around it suggesting that it had been opened sometime last night. In the center past rows of snow covered graves stood the mausoleum Bill had mentioned. The door was left slightly ajar and there was some snow scattered across the floor as a result.

“This place sure is creepy,” Mabel said as she pushed the door open wide enough for them to enter.

“Yeah,” Dipper agreed pulling his winter coat closer around himself. “Now to find that secret door.”

They didn’t have to search long before finding that it to had been left ajar. Pulling it the rest of the way open revealed a dark stairway leading down. Luckily Mabel had thought to bring a lantern, she pulled it out and set it to the brightest setting before leading the way down. Dipper made sure to stay as close to her as possible, both for safety in case there was something dangerous down there and for the comfort of being so close.

At the bottom was a fairly small room, small enough that the lantern lit up most of it, revealing that it was completely empty. The necromancer clearly wasn’t here right now.

Dipper's eyes were immediately drawn to the center of the room where a large circular pattern was drawn. On the outside was writing that looked similar to that on Bill’s chest surrounding what Dipper had always thought of as Bill’s wheel; the triangular demon in a circle made up of various symbols. Only instead of the usual symbols there were more of those alien runes and at each compass point had what looked like chains binding them to Bill’s image in the center.

“This must mean Bill was telling the truth,” Mabel whispered as they leaned over to examine it.

“Looks like it,” Dipper felt a chill run down his spine, he suddenly wanted to run back up to the surface. There was something powerful enough to trap Bill and it might still be nearby. But now was not the time to chicken out, he had to learn just what this thing was.

Upon further examination they found that one of the walls had been damaged by something being pulled through it. Not far from it they found a length of chain with two manacles at one end, Dipper thought they appeared to be the right size to have caused the bruising on Bill’s wrists. The necromancer had obviously trusted the chain to hold as he had apparently had left the key out in the open, where once free from the wall Bill had easily been able to use it to free himself of the chain.

“How hard do you think Bill had to pull at the chain to get it to break through the wall like that?” Mabel whispered as she studied the key still set in the manacles’ lock.

“I don’t know, but this place is old and damp so that probably helped,” Dipper whispered back.

They didn’t find much of anything else except an old empty table and the remains of numerous candles set in small alcoves lining the walls. Dipper wondered just how long the necromancer had been operating down here and for how long he’d been holding Bill prisoner.

Once they were satisfied that there was nothing else to see down there they finally went back up the steps into the crystal clear freezing air up above. Dipper was glad to finally be back above ground, that place seemed to have a sinister air about it that gotten worse the longer they were down there.

“So did you meet the necromancer?” Bill rolled down his window as they approached the car.

“No, but we did see … other things,” Mabel said as they climbed back in the car

“What actually happened down there?” Dipper asked starting the car to get the heat running again.

“I told you, he studied me, performed tests and stuff,” Bill pulled the blanket closer around himself shrugging.

“What sort of tests?” Dipper asked.

“You wouldn’t understand if I told you,” Bill said glancing out his window.

“That’s okay you don’t have to tell us if you don’t want to. But uh, how long were you trapped down there?” Mabel asked.

“It was dark most of the time and the only light I saw was when he brought his candles down so it’s hard to know exactly, but I would say at least a year,” Bill said.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Mabel gave Bill a concerned look.

“I don’t need your pity,” Bill, suddenly angry, almost growled at her. “What I need is to know if you saw anything that could possibly help free me. Did you see the necromancer’s book? He always left it down there on like a desk or something.”

“No, we didn’t see anything like that,” Dipper answered a little angry that Bill had brushed off Mabel’s concern so callously.

“Ugh, then that means he might have left for good this time. We need to find him as soon as possible,” Bill said.

“Do you have any idea where we could start looking?” Mabel asked.

“Oh, yes I would _totally_ know all the places he might have gone considering the fact he kept me chained underground the whole time. In between pulling me apart and putting me back together he _totally_ told me everywhere he planned to go once he was done with me,” Bill said rolling his eyes.

“Oh, geez _sorry_. There’s no need for you to be such a jerk about it, it’s not like we’re trying to help you or anything,” Mabel said crossing her arms.

Bill didn’t respond, just rolled his eyes again and pulled the blanket closer around himself.

“Okay, just calm down we need to figure out what to do with Bill until we can find out more information about this necromancer and whatever magic he’s using,” Dipper said not wanting them to get in a fight right now.

“Yeah, you’re right, as much as Bill is a jerk,” Mabel shot him a brief glare, “we can’t just leave him to freeze to death on the streets.”

Dipper wanted to help Bill solely so that he could learn more about the magic that this supposed necromancer was using. He was thinking that if he played his cards right he could learn all the wanted about the necromancer and his magic without having to free Bill. And since Bill seemed to be powerless in this state there wouldn’t be anything he could do about it. It would mean that Dipper would have to put up with Bill for a while but it would be worth it if he got to learn the secrets of the necromancer’s magic.

“I guess that means you’re still stuck at my place for now,” Dipper wanted Bill where he could keep a close eye on him.

“Good, we start searching for him immediately,” Bill said calming down a little.

“Bill we can’t start looking for him yet, we have absolutely no idea where to begin. So until we do more research or get a lead or something we’re stuck,” Dipper sighed, this was going to be a long few months or however long it took them to track down the necromancer.

“Yeah, also Bill if you’re going to be stuck with us for a while you’ll need some winter clothing and stuff so you don’t have to drag that blanket around with you everywhere you go,” Mabel said.

“But I like this blanket, it’s warm,” Bill complained.

“Yeah, but I refuse to be seen with you in public if you’re going to be wearing a stupid blanket all the time, so let’s go,” Dipper said putting the car into drive.


	3. Another Dimension?

When they reached the thrift store Dipper wanted to leave Bill in the car again since he looked ridiculous with the bright yellow blanket still wrapped around his shoulders but he insisted on going with them this time. Thankfully due to the icy roads and cold weather the store was almost entirely empty expect for the cashier and one or two other customers scattered about the store.

“What size do wear anyway Bill?” Mabel asked as they as they marched towards the clothing section.

“I don’t know,” Bill shrugged glancing at all the stuff they passed by.

“Take off the blanket for a sec and let me see,” Mabel said when reached their destination.

With a sigh Bill obediently slipped the blanket off and handed it to Dipper, who reluctantly took it.

“Wow, you’re real skinny,” Mabel said.

And he was, Dipper had been too distracted by the writing on his chest to notice last night but the body Bill was trapped in was painfully thin.

“Yeah, well I was chained up in crypt for like a year so what do you expect?” Bill said rolling his eyes.

“Oh, yeah, I uh forgot about that,” Mabel said biting her lip.

“Humans are so fragile, they can’t even take being locked up for a year without becoming even weaker than they already are. It’s so annoying, I can’t wait until I’m finally free of this stupid meat suit,” Bill complained loudly.

“I guess you’re just going to have to wear baggy clothes for while then,” Mabel said ignoring his outburst.

They ended up buying Bill several pairs of clothing as well as several other necessary items such as a coat, toothbrush, etc. Bill insisted that he would only wear yellow shirts and convinced them to buy him a top hat, saying it completed his image. Dipper wasn’t in the mood to argue with him and Mabel obviously felt sorry for him so of course he had gotten his way.

 

Later when they stopped by at Mabel’s house to drop her off Candy and Grenda were waiting outside. They approached as Dipper pulled the car to a stop in front of the house.

“Who’s he?” Candy asked when she saw Bill who was still sitting up front.

“This is Bill, he’s going to be staying with Dipper for a while,” Mabel explained stepping out of the car.

“Ooh, he’s kinda cute, too bad I already have a boyfriend though,” Grenda said winking at Bill.

Bill looked like he was going to respond so Dipper quickly wished Mabel goodbye before hitting the gas and driving the rest of the way down the street to his house. Unfortunately in his rush to turn into the driveway he ran over his mailbox again. It was now completely flattened and he would have to get another.

“You must really have something against that mailbox,” Bill said grinning.

Dipper almost responded to that but decided it probably wasn’t a good idea, he’d just give Bill more reasons to make fun of him. So instead, as they entered the house he said “I’m going to need a picture of that writing on your chest.”

“Alright fine,” Bill said dropping the blanket on the couch along with the bags from the thrift store and slipped his shirt off once more.

Dipper ripped a piece of paper off his planner in the kitchen pulled out the pencil he always kept in his pocket and quickly copied down the runes. He was able to draw them pretty much perfectly because he’d had a lot of practice drawing symbols and copying foreign runes ever since he became fascinated by this kind of stuff when he first discovered the journal. He made a mental note that he’d have to go back to the cemetery later and draw the circle down there too, but that could wait for another day.

“Okay, I’m going to go on my computer and see what I can find. There’s T.V. and video games in the living room, so I’m sure you can keep yourself entertained,” Dipper said when he’d finished and began making his way towards his office.

“Can’t I…” Bill began but Dipper shut the office door in his face. He made sure to lock it so Bill couldn’t follow him in.

Dipper quickly brushed aside some of the numerous papers he kept piled on his desk to make room for the sheet of paper he’d just drawn on. As he waited for this computer to boot up he wondered what Bill was up to. Hopefully he wouldn’t make mess or set the house on fire or anything else bad. But Dipper didn’t have time to worry about Bill right now, he had a mystery to solve.

As soon he opened his browser he immediately fell deep into the search. It was hours before his mind finally resurfaced to think about something other than the runes on the paper in front of him. Runes that didn’t seem to exist anyway else. He hadn’t found a single thing on the web that look even vaguely like them. Even websites that had never failed him before came up empty this time.

This was apparently going to be a lot harder than he’d originally anticipated. But he was still determined to see it through for no other reason than he wanted to know what the writing meant and how it was able to trap Bill so effectively. But for now he needed a break, it was past lunch time and he was dreadfully hungry.

With a groan he stood up, knocking more papers off his desk. He really needed to clean it but just didn’t ever have the time. Thankfully though Mabel never came back here so she would never be able scold him about it.

As he exited his office he saw that he bathroom door was open at the end of hall. Bill was standing in front of the mirror wearing nothing but a towel around his waist carefully cutting his blonde hair. He had obviously just got done taking a shower since his hair was still damp and the edges of the mirror were fogged up.

“Hey Pine Tree, you find anything?” Bill didn’t take his eyes off his reflection as he continued measuring out his hair with a comb before snipping it.

“No, it’s like those markings don’t exist anywhere,” Dipper sighed.

“I imagine they’re from a different dimension.”

“Yeah, but you’re from another dimension and stuff about you and your dimension is all over the internet and in books and stuff.”

“True, but our dimensions are closely linked. Maybe whatever dimension the necromancer is from is much more distant and this is the first time there’s been a crossover. But still I should know about it. I know of every other dimension, so why not that one?” Bill sounded confused and angry.

Dipper had never thought he'd see the demon confused about anything let alone something to do with a potential other dimension.

“Maybe the reason you don’t know about it is because it like anti-demon or something? I mean that writing or whatever is trapping you, so maybe you can’t see into that dimension because they use stuff like that?”

Bill paused before answering, "Hmm... I never thought of like that before. I didn't think anything could evade my awareness like that, but obviously I was wrong. You're probably right Pine Tree, there's no other way I wouldn't know about it. But now that I know of its existence when I get my my full power back I should be able to find it and destroy it."

Wow, Bill was actually taking into account what he’d said. Dipper had thought the demon would surely brush off any suggestion he’d made and would instead just be angry. Angry that it turned out he didn’t know everything there was to know about the universe after all.

“Anyway what are you doing?” Dipper asked deciding to ignore Bill's comment about wanting to destroy an entire dimension.

“Cutting my hair. It was too long so I’m fixing it. You might want to consider doing the same.”

Dipper probably did need a haircut. It was almost down to his shoulders now and it probably did look messy since he barely bothered to comb it. Not that anyone could tell really since he kept a hat on all the time. But that was something he could worry about later.

“Where’d you learn how cut hair anyway?” Dipper asked referring to the fact that Bill seemed to be using the method he’d seen professional hairdressers use.

“I possessed a barber once. I learned from digging around in his mind. I never thought I’d ever be in a position where knowing it would be useful though,” Bill said sounding a little annoyed.

“It can’t be that bad, can it? I mean that time you possessed me you seemed rather excited about being in a body,” Dipper really didn’t want to remember that but couldn’t help it.

“That was different,” Bill grinned. “Being in a meat suit for a little while is all fun and games but I’ve been trapped in this thing for at least year now. Not to mention I can’t leave it.”

“Ah, yeah I suppose there is that. But uh do you even know whose body that is?”

“No, but I’m pretty sure they’re dead.”

“What do mean? Are you like some sort of zombie or something?”

“No, the body’s still alive but its former inhabitant is gone. They were gone even before the necromancer trapped me in here. So I assume the necromancer did something to them to make room for me.”

That was certainly strange. Dipper wondered what the necromancer even wanted Bill for in the first place. He decided later he would try to get the demon to talk more about what the necromancer had done while ‘studying’ him. But not right now since he had other things to think about, like finally getting some lunch.

“Well uh anyway, whenever you’re done with that I’m going to the diner for lunch if you want come?”

“Really? I thought you didn’t like me. Why are you inviting me to lunch all of a sudden?” Bill said grinning.

“I don’t like you, but I figure as long I’m working with you on this necromancer problem we could at least try to be friendly to each other,” Dipper was also thinking he might be able to learn a thing or two about Bill’s dimension or anything thing else he was curious about that couldn’t be learned from books or the internet. Bill had been around for an awful long time and definitely knew a lot about the universe. There was no reason why he couldn’t share some of that information with Dipper.

“Good point, just let me finish this first and then we’ll go.”


	4. An Experiment with a Hot Knife

Once Bill was done grooming himself he came out into the living room, he was wearing the new clothing they had bought for him. The bright yellow sweater was too big for him and hung loosely on his slender frame. But he had combed his newly shortened hair back neatly and Dipper thought it didn’t look all that bad under the top hat. In fact Dipper thought if this wasn’t Bill Cipher he’d be quite attractive.

Before heading to the diner Dipper stopped by Mabel’s place to invite her along as well. Of course that meant Candy and Grenda were asked to come to. They all happily agreed to go and piled up in the back of Dipper’s car.

“So Bill how do you know Dipper and Mabel? They’ve never mentioned you before,” Candy asked as they sat down at their table.

“They’re old friends of mine, we go way back,” Bill replied.

“Oh, so you’re one of their California friends? Did you come here because you and Mabel have a thing now?” Grenda asked.

“No,” Mabel said quickly, “me and Bill aren’t like that. That would gross.”

“Ooh so that means you’re single?” Candy asked leaning towards Bill a little.

Dipper suddenly regretted this outing. He should have known Candy would try to flirt with Bill. Grenda would probably have flirted with him too if it wasn’t for the fact that she still was dating Marius.

“Yeah, but I’m not interested in you,” Bill said as if the very idea disgusted him.

Candy looked taken aback at being shot down so quickly and sat back in her seat. Dipper thought that Bill could’ve been a bit kinder turning her away but was still glad that he had.

An awkward silence hung over the table until the waiter, still Lazy Susan, came to take their orders. “How you kids doing? Still enjoying your Christmas break?” she said.

“Yep, classes don’t start up again for a few more weeks, so we still have ages to spend goofing off,” Mabel said.

“Wait, you guys are in college now? I thought you were taking a break from school,” Bill said looking mildly confused.

“Yeah we were, but we started college last fall,” Dipper briefly wondered why Bill didn’t know that but then remembered he’d been chained up in a crypt for the past year. Which certainly explained why they hadn’t seen him in all that time. Not that Bill had appeared to them very often before, only just enough so they knew he was still keeping tabs on them.

"Man I really have been out of the loop," Bill said frowning.

After they all placed their orders and Lazy Susan had gone back to the kitchens to prepare them, Candy turned to Bill and asked, “Why didn't you know that Dipper and Mabel are going to college? You said you guys were friends, why wouldn’t you know something like that?”

“I’ve been … away for the past year and only just got back,” Bill said adjusting his sleeves as if to make sure they still covered his bruised wrists.

"Really? Like on vacation? Where to?" Grenda asked.

Bill looked around uncomfortably for a bit before trying to answer, "Just ... you know places, where I uh... couldn't keep track of stuff."

“Let’s talk about something else. Like uh … cute boys. Yeah let’s talk about cute boys,” Mabel said quickly changing the subject and saving Bill from having to answer anymore uncomfortable questions.

Dipper was a little disappointed the Mabel had changed the subject like that. He had liked seeing how uncomfortable Candy and Grenda were making Bill. But Mabel being the nice person she was wouldn't just sit there and watch as someone was put in such a position, even if that person wasn't exactly her friend.

So for the rest of the time they spent eating lunch together the girls discussed the boys that they fancied. Bill didn't really seem like he wanted to talk to them anymore and kept silent the whole time. Probably because he was worried they would start asking him questions again. Dipper also didn't say much either, mostly because he didn't have anything to say.

 

Afterward Dipper dropped the girls (still happily chatting away) off back at their house before returning to his own home.

“Good job Pine Tree, you managed to not hit the mailbox this time,” Bill said as Dipper turned the car into his driveway.

“Yeah whatever,” Dipper sighed as he opened his front door. “Anyway I’m going go back to trying to find what those runes mean.”

“Yeah, about that I really think you should let me help you. Since I do know more about these things than you do.”

“Well clearly not, since you’re the one who was tricked by the necromancer. If you had known what the runes meant in the first place you wouldn’t have fallen for his trap. Face it you’re just as ignorant about this as I am, maybe more so,” Dipper said intentionally goading Bill to see how he would react.

He wasn’t disappointed when Bill froze and looked hatefully at him. “Fine have your way. I don’t want to spend time in your messy office anyway,” he angrily crossed his arms and slumped on the couch still staring daggers at Dipper.

Feeling happy that he’d been able to frustrate Bill so much Dipper returned to his office once more. He again made sure the door was locked before sitting down at his desk.

This time he broadened his search to include to include necromancers and trapping demons in bodies and other similar things. He found plenty of references in works of fiction, but none that seemed plausible or any that used writing like on Bill’s chest.

This was so frustrating, he’d been handed a mystery to solve on a silver platter but he couldn’t find anything that could help him. There was no way someone or something powerful enough to trap Bill hadn’t left a mark somewhere in history or made some kind of splash somewhere.

Maybe he should ask Bill for help researching this after all. Even if Bill didn’t know these what runes meant exactly he still had more experience in this kind of stuff than Dipper did.

With a resigned sigh Dipper stood up and exited his office. He had expected to find Bill moping on the couch or something but no he was in the kitchen standing in front of the stove for some reason. Dipper could see the stove was on but he couldn’t tell what Bill was doing with it.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“An experiment,” Bill replied.

“Well whatever it is you better not burn the house down,” Dipper said walking over to get a better look.

The stove was set to high and Bill had placed one of Dipper’s kitchen knives on it. He couldn’t even begin to guess what Bill was up to here but whatever it was it probably wasn’t good.

“Whatever it is that you’re doing you need to stop,” he said.

“Don’t worry Pine Tree I’m not going to do anything bad. In fact I think the knife is hot enough now so…”

Bill turned the stove off and pulled his sweater off over his head. And then before Dipper could ask him what he was doing he pressed the scalding hot knife against one of the runes on his chest. Dipper winced at the horrible hissing sound it made, much to Bill’s amusement.

“What the fuck Bill?”

Bill grinned at him saying, “I’m trying to burn them off.” But his face fell when he pulled the knife away revealing that no damage had been done to the rune despite the burned flesh surrounding it. Frowning he then ran the point of the knife through it but even though it went through just fine there was no sign of its passage anywhere on the rune afterward.

“Stop that,” Dipper said snatching the knife away.

“Well I had to try at least once,” Bill said grumpily. “Do you have any acid I could try?”

“No, are you crazy?” Dipper said running the knife under the kitchen faucet causing a cloud of steam to rise from it.

“Yeah but do you know where I could get some acid then?”

“Bill if burning and cutting them didn’t work what makes you think acid will? And how do stand it, doesn’t that hurt?”

“Yes of course it hurts but that’s what I like about it. And you’re right, acid probably won’t work either but it’s still worth a try.”

“So help me if you accidentally kill yourself in my kitchen or anywhere else in my house…”

“Relax Pine Tree, I have no interest being trapped in a rotting corpse,” Bill said putting his shirt back on.

Dipper couldn’t believe it, Bill had just moved in with him and was already causing trouble. Dipper decided he would have to gather up all the dangerous objects in the house and lock them up in his office. He wondered if it would be possible to make it so Bill couldn’t use the stove either, but that would probably be a bit overkill.

“Anyway Pine Tree I’m bored, entertain me,” Bill said.

“Just go watch T.V. or something, I’m not in the mood to deal with you right now,” Dipper could feel a headache starting to come on and just wanted to lie down for a bit.

“But Pine Tree you’re supposed to be finding the necromancer for me,” Bill complained.

“Yeah and I will, tomorrow,” Dipper pulled out the bottle of pain pills he kept in the kitchen and downed a couple with a glass of water. He wanted to go take a quick nap but was no longer sure he trusted Bill to have free roam of the house with no one there to supervise him. He amusedly thought for a moment about calling Mabel over to babysit, but she would probably be over in the next few hours anyway.

“But Pine Tree, the longer you take to find him the longer you have put up with me. And I know just how much you like spending time with me.”

True, but it was still probably going to take Dipper ages to find anything regardless of when he got started, assuming he ever did find anything. What if he continued finding nothing? Would that mean Bill would mooch off of him for the rest of his life? He didn’t really want to think about such things right now. So ignoring Bill he went into the living room sat down on one end of the couch and turned the T.V. on.

“Ignore me then, but it won’t change the fact that you’re stuck with me until I’m finally free from this body,” Bill said as he sat on the other side of the couch.


	5. Planning Betrayal

Mabel came over a few hours later with pizza she had made for them. Dipper was glad she had brought food, it meant he didn’t have to make any. He realized now that he had said Bill could stay with him he would have start cooking for two every night instead just when Mabel came over.

While they ate they sat on the couch in the living room watching T.V. Dipper whispered to Mabel what Bill had done in his kitchen a few hours ago. He was pretty sure Bill could hear him anyway but didn’t really care.

“Well that’s certainly interesting,” Mabel replied. “But uh did you find anything on the necromancer?”

“Sadly no,” Dipper told her about how he hadn’t even found a small hint or clue despite spending several hours on the internet searching.

“He wouldn’t let me help,” Bill cut in. “Which might be why he failed so badly.”

Dipper hadn’t wanted Bill’s help. He wanted to be able to say he had figured out something that Bill didn’t know. But based off how little information he had got he figured he would probably need Bill’s expertise after all.

“Bill is there anything else you know about the necromancer that would help us find him? Like maybe he has some kind of cool scar or rides a griffon or something,” Mabel said.

“He likes to wear black,” Bill shrugged.

“Do you even his name?” Dipper asked.

“No, he wanted me to call him ‘Master’. I’d rather stop existing than call anyone ‘Master’,” Bill said disgusted.

 

The next few days were much the same, Dipper trying to find something on the necromancer and Mabel coming over in the evenings to see if he’d found anything. Which he never did, even with Bill hovering over his shoulder directing his search. But Bill did lead him to discovering interesting tidbits about other things just not what they were actually looking for.

Eventually Dipper decided to go back down to the cemetery to get a picture of the circle on the ground. Bill had said he didn’t want to go but there was no way Dipper was going to leave him home alone and had threatened to drag him in the car. Something he was pretty sure he could do considering how thin Bill still was. Not wanting to face that humiliation Bill had finally agreed to go.

So after picking up Mabel he drove back down to the cemetery, parking in front of the still open gate.

“Maybe we’ll find something down there that we missed last time. Something that’ll help solve all the mysteries,” Mabel said as they climbed out of the car and started for the mausoleum.

Dipper highly doubted that would be the case. But it would still be worth a look.

Once they reached the mausoleum’s entrance and pushed the door open Bill stopped and said, “You guys go ahead, I’ll wait here for you.”

“Why aren’t you going to come down with us? We already determined the necromancer’s gone,” Dipper said.

“Just don’t want to,” Bill shrugged.

“Really are you sure it’s not because you’re a coward too afraid to face the scene of your humiliation?” Dipper said wanting to make Bill angry.

“I’m not a coward! I just don’t want to go down that’s all. It’s too cold and dark,” Bill said defensively.

“Really? I think you’re just being cowardly,” Dipper wanted to see how far he could push Bill.

“I’m not…ugh, fine I’ll go down there, see if I care,” Bill said before angrily striding through the door.

It felt good to be able to make Bill so angry. Dipper made a mental note that he should use Bill’s situation against him more often.

“Dipper…” Mabel placed a hand on his arm, “That wasn’t very nice.”

“Yeah, well Bill’s not very nice,” he replied.

“But Dipper he probably didn’t want to go down there because that place has bad memories for him. How would you feel about a place where someone kept you locked up for a year?”

“It’s Bill we’re talking about here, he’s lived for who knows how long, a year is probably nothing to him. Also he likes pain remember? Being chained up down there was probably nothing more than annoying to him.”

“But Dipper he’s like our ally, for now anyway, we probably shouldn’t be mean to him,” Mabel of course would still feel sorry for him.

“Mabel you are aware that we’re eventually going to betray him right?”

“’Betray him’? But why? We said we would help him find the necromancer,” Mabel said.

“And we will but we’re not going to free him from that body. We’re much better off if we leave him like that forever so he remains harmless. The only reason we’re working with him in the first place is because he knows more about this stuff than we do. Also if we keep him around the necromancer might show up to finish what he started and then like we could learn all we want from him without having to put up with Bill anymore,” Dipper explained.

“You’re starting to sound like Gruncle Ford, caring more about knowledge and stuff than you do about people,” Mabel said.

“Technically Bill isn’t a person, he’s a demon. And he’s probably planning to betray us once we free him anyway so there’s no need to feel bad about lying to him.”

Mabel thought about that for a few moments before sighing deeply and saying “I guess it _is_ Bill Cipher so you might be right. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it.” She then turned her lantern on and led the way downstairs.

“You guys sure did take your time. Are you sure you’re not the ones afraid of this place?” Bill said as they reached the bottom.

“No, we don't have any reason to be, unlike you.” Dipper was a little unnerved though, it being so far underground and in a cemetery of all places.

“Whatever, just take your stupid picture so we can go back somewhere where it’s warm,” Bill complained zipping his yellow coat up all the way.

Before pulling out his camera he had brought Dipper decided to take one last look around the room. Of course he didn’t find anything new but he did notice that on the table there was a light layer of dust with a clean spot in the middle. It looked like a large book had rested there but was gone now.

“It looks like there used to be a book here,” he said.

“Yeah, he had a book he would occasionally consult and write stuff down in. He always kept it there even when he was away. So when I saw I'd escaped he must've left and taken it with him,” Bill said.

“What did it look like?” Mabel asked.

“Black, with more of that strange writing on the cover,” Bill replied.

“Was it like a spell book or something?” Mabel asked.

“I think so, maybe. I saw its pages a couple times. They were covered in that rune writing so I don’t know what they said but I’m pretty sure if I can get my hands on it I could use it to free myself,” Bill said.

Dipper was pretty sure looking for the book would do no good since it was probably still with the necromancer. But once they found the necromancer he was determined to get his hands on it. But for now he had other thing to worry about, like the circle.

“What was this circle used for exactly?” Dipper asked as he began taking photos of it.

Bill thought a moment before replying, “It held me in place while he was studying me.”

“Why was he studying you? I mean like what was he trying to learn?” Mabel asked holding the lantern directly above the circle so Dipper’s pictures would be well lit.

“Stuff, I don’t know,” Bill said shrugging and crossing his arms. “Can you just hurry up, it’s freezing down here.”

“What did he do when he was ‘studying’ you?” Dipper asked not actually expecting to get a real answer.

“You wouldn’t understand if I tried to explain it to you,” Bill said giving the exact reply Dipper had expected.

But before Dipper could try to prod him for a real answer Mabel cut in saying, “That’s okay, you don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. And me and Dipper will respect that and not mention it anymore. Right Dipper?” Mabel gave Dipper a look that said she wouldn’t tolerate him being ‘mean’ to Bill by making him talk about stuff that might upset him.

Bill gave Mabel an odd look before replying, “Thank you Shooting Star. You know, I didn’t actually expect you to be nice to me.”

Dipper was more than a little surprised at the apparent sincerity in Bill’s voice. Had whatever the necromancer done to him really been that bad? Bad enough that even thinking about upset him? Or was he just pretending so that they would feel sorry for him and trust him?

“Don’t worry about it,” Mabel said. “Now Dipper if you would hurry it up please, it’s cold and creepy down here.”

Mabel was right, it was freezing and more than a little unsettling being so far underground in a cemetery. So Dipper took a few more pictures of the circle and just the room in general before pocketing his camera and leading the way back upstairs.


	6. Roommates

Later when they returned home Dipper went back into his office to work on the sequel to his book. He left Bill in the living room telling him to knock if he needed anything. Bill had complained because he wanted to continue looking for the necromancer, but Dipper wasn’t in mood to have him hovering over his shoulder right now. Besides he really needed to start work on his book again. He’d neglected it ever since Bill moved in and he wanted to get as much work on it done before college started up again in the next of couple weeks.

So he spent the next few hours typing away and not stopping until he’d written an entire chapter, the most he’d ever written in one sitting before. But once he’d finished he realized it was late and Mabel would be coming over soon with dinner. So after making sure the computer had saved his work he turned it off and headed out into the living room again.

Bill was there sitting on the couch watching some sort of slasher movie on T.V. He looked up as Dipper approached.

"What are you watching?" Dipper asked as the screen showed a teenage girl getting brutally murdered by some dude in a mask.

"It's supposed to be a horror movie but's there's nothing really scary about it. In fact it's kind of funny, the murderer always kills the stupid kids in the most ridiculous ways possible, they don't even really seem to try to escape. And every time one of them finds the corpse of one of their friends they always start screaming and crying, it's hilarious," Bill said grinning.

"You know, I'm not really surprised you like slasher films," Dipper said as he sat on the couch to watch the rest of the movie. He had admit that Bill had a point, in most slasher films the teenagers rarely if ever actually tried anything that could actually help them escape.

At the end of the movie the killer was of course defeated by the main character. "I'm disappointed, at the end there the killer acted even stupider than before. Like he could have easily killed everyone and gotten away with it, but no he goes and gets himself killed by an incompetent kid. But whatever, you humans always want a happy ending even if it doesn't make sense," Bill complained as the credits rolled.

"Of course, the movie would suck if there wasn't a happy ending. If the killer had gotten away with it then it would just leave people feeling depressed at the end," Dipper said.

"They could have at least tried to make their stupid happy ending make sense though," Bill replied.

Just then Dipper heard the front door open. Looking over he saw it was Mabel.

“Sorry I’m late, I may have burnt the lasagna I was going to bring. But that’s okay because I ordered pizza instead, should be here in like twenty minutes,” she said.

“Say Shooting Star, how do feel about slasher films?” Bill asked.

“I'm not really a big fan of them but Dipper likes them, I think,” Mabel replied as she sat down on the couch between them.

“Well let's watch another one, hopefully one with a better ending this time,” Bill said picking up the remote to navigate the pay-per-view menu.

"Ugh, do we have to? Can't we like watch something that isn't horribly violent?" Mabel said.

"No, I have the remote so I get choose what we watch. And I want to watch something with lots of blood and guts in it," Bill replied.

Mabel then tried to snatch the remote from him but he was more than prepared and easily kept it from her grasp. Mabel then tackled him, trying to rip the remote from his hand. Bill obviously wasn't prepared this time as he was only able to keep the remote for a few more seconds before Mabel succeeded in stealing it from him.

"Ha, now I have the remote and I say we watch something cute," Mabel said triumphantly holding the remote aloft.

Bill of course took this opportunity to try to steal the remote back. Mabel didn't let go though and they were soon locked into an almost tug of war.

Dipper watched them fight over the remote for a few seconds. He didn't particularity care what they watched but he was curious to see who would win. He soon got his answer as Bill quickly tired and Mabel was able to take possession of the remote.

"Ha I win, so we're going to watch something cute," Mabel said smiling as she started looking for something 'cute' in the pay-per-view menu.

"Yeah, whatever," Bill said panting.

 

Several hours later after Mabel had gone home and Dipper was about to head for bed Bill turned to him and said, “Hey Pine Tree, you should buy me a bed."

“No, I’m not buying you bed” Dipper said.

“But Pine Tree, if I’m going to be stuck like this for a while I want a real bed to sleep on,” Bill said.

“Where would we even put another bed anyway?” Dipper’s place was much too small. Unless they got one those couch beds, but that would mean moving the other couch out as well as moving the new one in.

“Your room,” Bill said.

“But there’s not a whole lot of room in there either,” Dipper also didn’t fancy sleeping in the same room as Bill.

“There’s room for another bed. It’s not like you need the space in there for anything else anyway.”

“Why do you want a bed so bad all of a sudden for anyway? You seemed perfectly content to sleep on the couch until now,” Dipper said.

“The couch is uncomfortable and cold. Your room is much warmer than the living room. Also I don’t want to be stuck sleeping on your couch for however long it takes us to find the necromancer.”

“Yeah but the couch should be more than good enough,” Dipper said.

“But Pine Tree you can’t honestly expect me to sleep on the couch for however long this takes. Besides you always wake up before me which means you have to wait for me to wake up before you can watch T.V. in the mornings. But if I had my own bed then that wouldn’t be a problem,” Bill reasoned.

Bill had a point, Dipper did like to watch T.V. in the mornings, normally with a cup of coffee, and he couldn’t do that while Bill was still sleeping on the couch. But did he really want to sleep in the same room as a dream demon even if he was lacking his powers? But then again if Bill had a bed he might sleep in longer meaning Dipper could have more time to himself in the mornings.

“Fine, tomorrow we’ll get you a bed. But it’ll have to be cheap and small,” Dipper knew he shouldn’t cave but the thought of being able to sit on his couch and watch T.V. in the mornings again was just too appealing.

“And more blankets too?” Bill said with a victorious smile.

“Yeah, I guess,” Dipper sighed.

 

The next day Dipper drove down to the mattress store with Bill. He would’ve brought Mabel too but her break from her job at a clothing store had ended that day. She had wanted to head into work early so she could take advantage of her employee status to take ownership of the tacky Christmas sweaters the store hadn’t been able to sell off.

As soon as they walked in the door Bill made a beeline for one the fancy expensive beds set up in the front to tempt people.

“I want this one,” he said.

“No, the only way I’m going to get you a bed is if it’s cheap,” Dipper said.

“But Pine Tree…” Bill complained as he lay down on it, “It’s so soft and warm.”

“Yeah, well we’re not getting that one,” Dipper put his foot down, he wasn’t about to let Bill’s complaining annoy him into buying an expensive bed.

“Can I help you two gentlemen?” the store clerk, a pretty young woman, asked as she approached them.

“Yeah, I need a cheap bed for my friend here,” Dipper explained.

“One that would be big enough for the two of you?” she asked.

“No! Why would we ever want to share a bed?” Dipper was horrified by the mere thought.

“Oh, you’re not… I’m sorry, it’s just it’s not every day two young men walk in together to buy a bed,” she said blushing a little.

“Wait you thought we were… that’s… that’s disgusting. I would never want to do anything like that with him of all people,” Dipper said horrified even more by what the clerk had probably assumed about them.

“I wouldn’t mind sharing a bed with Pine Tree, it’d be warmer that way. But sadly he would never agree to it,” Bill said still lying on the fancy bed.

Dipper suddenly wanted to punch Bill in face, he was making it sound like he wanted them to be a couple. But as long as the store clerk was here Dipper couldn’t make his anger known.

“Look we just need a bed, a cheap one that’s small,” Dipper explained trying to make the situation a little less awkward.

“Yeah, uh sure, I can help with that if you’ll follow me,” she said as she started to head further in.

She led them to where all the twin sized beds were lined up. She then briefly explained how they were ordered based on their price and material.

Eventually Dipper ended up buying the second cheapest one there, since Bill complained that the cheapest one was almost as bad as the couch. He had also decided to go ahead and pay a little extra to get it and the bed frame delivered today, mostly so he wouldn’t have to deal with it later.

They then went to the store where Bill convinced Dipper to buy him yellow and black bedding. He had been very insistent on those colours and Dipper hadn’t really cared beyond the fact that something like that was hard to find. But find it they did and afterward they went home to wait for the bed to be delivered.

While they waited Bill decided to play some of Dipper's video games on one of the game consoles that hadn't actually turned on in more than a year. Dipper settled down to watch, partly because he wanted to see how bad or good Bill would be able to play them but also because he wanted to be there when the delivery people came with the bed.

As it turned out Bill was quickly able to pick up on how to play any game he tried despite having never played anything like them before. Dipper had to admit he was quite impressed, he hadn't expected Bill be any good at something like video games. Eventually Bill suggested they play a co-op game together, Dipper bored of just watching agreed.

Hours later when the delivery people showed up Dipper was surprised at how long they'd been playing. He couldn't even remember the last time he'd enjoyed playing a game that much. He guessed it was probably because he'd only ever played them with Mabel before and she was never too big into them the way Bill seemed to be.

After Dipper had signed the delivery sheet the men whose job it was to deliver the bed asked them where they wanted it set up.

“Next to Pine Tree’s bed, so I can use him as a warm pillow,” Bill said causing the delivery people to look at him funny.

“No, it’s going on the exact opposite side of the room from my bed,” Dipper shot him a brief glare. “Just ignore him, I’ll show you where to put it.”

It took about an hour but it was eventually set up in Dipper’s room. It meant there wasn’t much room in there anymore but he hadn’t been planning to use the space for anything anyway.

“There you have your bed and I can have my couch in the mornings again,” Dipper said as he watched Bill put his new bedspread on it.

“Tomorrow we should resume our search for the necromancer,” Bill said as he finished laying out the his new blankets.

"Yeah, we will," Dipper replied before leading the way back out into the living room to continue to the game they'd been playing.

 

That evening when Mabel came over she brought not only supper for them but also a couple of the tacky Christmas sweaters she had saved from the store. She was also already wearing one, it had reindeer on it with a red light bulb nose that lit up when she pressed a button.

“Mabel really? Christmas has been over for ages now, don’t you think it’s a little late for something like that?” Dipper said when he saw it.

“It’s never too late or early for a cute Christmas sweater. But don’t worry Dip I brought you guys a couple of cute sweaters too,” Mabel said as she placed the frozen pizzas she had brought over in the oven.

Mabel then put the bag she had brought on the counter. She pulled out a dark blue sweater with a decorated Christmas tree on the front. “Here Dipper see isn’t it cute?” she said handing it him.

“Yeah sure, but you know I’m not wearing it anytime soon right?” Dipper sighed.

Mabel did this pretty much every year ever since she started working at that clothing store. Because she and the boss were friendly with each other Mabel often got free sweaters. Especially when the store stopped selling a certain kind of sweater, like after the holidays were over.

“Did you get one for me to Shooting Star?” Bill asked.

“Yep, I even managed to find one in yellow,” Mabel said pulling out the other sweater she had brought. It was bright yellow with black silhouettes of reindeer running across it.

Bill took it and looked at it for a few seconds before saying, “I like it.” He then slipped off the shirt he’d been wearing to put it on. It of course hung loosely on him but it would probably fit him just fine once he got back to a normal weight.

“Well I’m glad somebody likes their new sweater,” Mabel said with a smile.

They spent the rest of the evening hanging out, talking and watching T.V. like they usually did. Mabel had even eventually convinced Dipper to wear the sweater she had brought him so that they all kind of matched.


	7. Still Finding Nothing

“If I drew this circle on the ground and pushed you on it would it trap you?” Dipper asked referring to the printed picture of the circle that the necromancer had supposedly used to trap Bill.

It was the last day before Dipper needed to go back to college and he was using it to try to find something on the necromancer. They were in the library with a bunch of books having to do with trapping demons and runes. Like every other time they tried to learn anything new they were again coming up with nothing.

“No, that’s not how magic works,” Bill answered.

“Really, why wouldn’t it work? You said the necromancer used this to trap you right? Why I couldn’t I do the same?”

“You couldn’t put magic into the runes so it wouldn’t be powerful enough to hold me. Besides even if it did work like that there’s a rune missing,” Bill said absent mindedly flipping through one of the many books on the table between them.

“Wait missing rune? Why didn’t you say something about that earlier?” Dipper was annoyed that Bill hadn’t mentioned such an important detail like that in all this time.

“Would it have made any difference? I mean regardless of where we look we’re not finding anything. How would you knowing about the sealing rune have helped us in anyway?” Bill said sighing heavily.

Bill was right even if Dipper had known about the missing rune it wouldn’t have helped them find anything. But still if Bill had failed to mention something like that what else could he be conveniently forgetting to talk about?

“Alright then, why is there a rune missing? And more to the point what does it look like? You called it a ‘sealing rune’, what does that mean?” Dipper leaned forward a little on the table.

“I called it a ‘sealing rune’ because it sealed the circle so that I couldn’t leave it. It’s missing because the necromancer removed it so he could chain me back to the wall. As for what it looks like, you don’t need to know.”

“If the circle trapped you, why would there be any need for the chains at all?” Dipper asked hoping Bill wouldn’t shut down like he did every other time he'd been asked him about his time spent with the necromancer.

Bill thought for a few seconds before answering, “Because he put me in the circle so he could… study me. Which meant he had to temporarily free me from this body. When he was done he… forced me back in it and opened the circle again so he could chain me back up.”

“Why go through all that trouble if the circle’s good enough to trap you?” Dipper asked.

“Because when he had me trapped in the circle he brought me fully into this dimension, and given time I would have eventually been able to break it,” Bill sighed. “Can you imagine that Pine Tree? I got what I was trying to get all that time ago and couldn’t even do anything.”

Wow, whoever this necromancer was he was certainly pretty scary. Dipper was suddenly have doubts about finding this guy. What if he didn’t take too kindly to Dipper trying to learn his secrets? But then again, it was possible that the necromancer only went after demons and wouldn’t mind Dipper trying to learn from him. Either way Dipper wanted, no needed, to know more.

“What did the necromancer actually do to you when he was studying you? Like in what way was he studying you and what was he even trying to learn?” he asked.

“I’ve told you a million times Pine Tree, if I tried to explain it you wouldn’t understand,” Bill understandably sounded more than a little annoyed, Dipper had asked him about this an awful lot over the past few weeks. He had always responded the same exact way and Dipper was starting to get sick of it.

“Are you sure I wouldn’t understand or is that just your way of saying you don’t want to tell me? Are you too afraid to admit just how in his power you were?” Dipper said frustrated with always having his curiosity denied. He knew it was probably a sore point for Bill but he _really_ wanted to know.

“Fine you got me Pine Tree,” Bill said abruptly standing up. “I don’t want to tell, in fact I would much rather not even think about it. But here you are constantly reminding me of it and how powerless I was to stop it,” Bill pounded the table with his fist before turning and angrily storming away.

Dipper suddenly felt bad. He had been bothering Bill about something he was still clearly very upset and traumatized over. Heck this whole thing was probably traumatizing to Bill. He had most likely never been in such a powerless position like this before.

But it was only Bill Cipher. Why did Dipper feel so bad for him? According to Stanford, Bill had been trying to take over the world and might have eventually succeeded if they hadn’t found a way to nullify the interdimensional rift. So why did Dipper feel guilty about upsetting him like that?

With a sigh Dipper stood up and went looking for Bill. He eventually found him all the way on the other side of the library. He was sitting on floor facing into a corner and away from Dipper. He was curled up in a tight ball hugging his legs with his head resting on his knees.

“Hey, uh Bill?” Dipper said tentatively.

“What do you want Pine Tree? Here to remind of how powerless I am again?” Bill sounded very upset and angry, so unlike his usual self. It made Dipper feel even worse, he’d had no idea he’d upset Bill so much.

“I… I’m sorry. I just really wanted to know but I shouldn't've bothered you about it you after you didn’t answer any other of the other times I'd asked. I uh… didn't really consider how reminding you of it would make you feel… and… I’m sorry I brought it up so often. I’ll uh… stop asking you about it now,” Dipper said staring down the floor.

At first it seemed like Bill wasn’t going to respond but after a little while he turned around to face Dipper and with a smile said, “Wow you’re actually apologizing to me. As if you could even hurt my feelings to begin with.”

Dipper decided to take that as Bill’s way of saying he was forgiven.

“You uh, ready to head to home?” Dipper asked.

“Yeah, sure whatever, we’re not going to find anything here anyway,” Bill said standing up.

“Okay, let’s just put the books back then we’ll go.”

As they walked back and started putting the books back where they belonged Dipper reflected on what just happened and why he’d felt the way he had about it. He realized now that he was sort of starting to think of Bill as a friend. They’d certainly spent a lot time together ever since Bill had shown up on his doorstep a few weeks. And during that time they’d done lots of things that friends would normally do, they’d even become roommates not that long ago. And in all that time Bill hadn’t done anything too terribly bad or anything that even suggested he wanted to. In fact Dipper had to admit to himself that lately he sort of found Bill’s company enjoyable more often than not.

He wondered if it was okay to be friends with Bill, even just for now. Like him and Bill were still kind of enemies, right? And Dipper was still planning to try to learn the necromancer’s secrets without actually freeing Bill. Any friendship they had would no doubt end when Bill learned that. So could he really consider Bill a friend when he was planning on betraying him?

         

During the car ride back Dipper avoided speaking about the necromancer. Bill really didn’t seem to notice or care. So when they returned home Dipper went into his office to work on his book some more while Bill sat on the couch to play video games.

Mabel came over in the evening as she usually did to hang out and share dinner with them. Dipper had been so engrossed in writing his book that she’d had to knock on the door to get him to come out.

“You find anything at the library?” she asked after Dipper stepped out of his office closing and locking the door behind him.

“No, but Bill told me there’s a rune missing on the circle,” Dipper went on to tell her a summary of the conversion he and Bill had had earlier. But he left out the part where he had upset Bill and had to apologize.

“What are you going to do if you never find anything?” Mabel said after making sure Bill was still in the living room and couldn’t hear them here in the kitchen where they were now preparing dinner.

“I don’t know. Nothing I guess, but then I don’t know what Bill’s going to do. I’m probably going to be stuck living with him for a while at least,” Dipper had to admit that he wasn't as bothered by that thought as he might have once been.

“You’d be stuck living with Bill for a while anyway right? Since you said you were planning on betraying him,” Mabel still didn’t sound very happy about it as she whispered to him.

“I think once Bill figures out I’m not actually planning on helping him he’ll leave. Or another possibility is that the necromancer comes back to finish what he started and then we don’t have to worry about it anymore.”

Dipper had to admit, at least to himself anyway, that he really hoped the latter didn’t happen. He was no longer liked the thought of Bill dying and in fact thought he 'd be kind of sad if it did happen. But if it came down to it Dipper had no idea if he would actually try to save Bill or let the necromancer kill him. And he desperately hoped he would never have to make that decision.

Mabel gave him a very disapproving look. Of course she would disapprove she didn’t know as much about Bill as Dipper did. Come to think of it she hadn’t even known about the interdimensional rift or Bill’s plan to take over the world by using it. Stanford had told Dipper not to say anything about it and he hadn’t even after it had been essentially destroyed, maybe now was the time to fix that.

Dipper was about to bring it up when Bill walked into the kitchen. “So you guys start college tomorrow right? What does that mean I’m going to do all day?” he asked.

“It means you’re going to stay here and do nothing,” Dipper said.

“You should give me the key to your office so I can try to find something while you’re wasting your time with school,” Bill replied.

“Yeah no, not gonna to happen,” Dipper most certainly did not want Bill in his office when he wasn’t there to watch him.

Bill looked like he was about to make an angry response when Mabel cut in saying, “Food’s done, so let’s not argue okay?”


	8. First Day Back at College

The next day when Dipper woke up and started to get ready for his first day back at college Bill was still asleep. Nothing new there since he had a tendency to sleep halfway through the morning and occasionally almost to midday. But Dipper needed to talk to him before leaving.

“Wake up Bill,” Dipper said turning the light on. When he got no response he went over and pulled the blanket off Bill saying “Wake up, I need to talk to you.”

But Bill remained fast asleep. So Dipper leaned over and shook his shoulder, which finally got a response.

“Go ‘way Pine Tree,” Bill mumbled as his hands started searching for the lost blanket.

“I will in a minute, I just need to make sure you’ll be fine on your own while I’m at school. I should be back at like two or three. Do you think you can handle being by yourself until then?” Dipper said.

“I’m not a child Pine Tree I can take care of myself. So just go away and let me sleep,” Bill said as he found the blanket at the end of the bed and pulled it up to cover his face.

“Alright, I guess. My cell number’s on the fridge if you need anything, but only call if there’s an emergency, like the house is burning down or something. Also there’s food in the kitchen so you shouldn’t starve while I’m gone. And uh, Mabel's number is also on the fridge if you need her, and I think that's it,” Dipper said.

In response Bill mumbled something Dipper couldn’t quite make out but he was pretty sure it was something rude. With a sigh Dipper decided to let it go turned off the light and left.

He went out to where Mabel, Candy, and Grenda were waiting for him in Grenda’s car. Since they all went to the same college and had previously shared rent in the same house they always carpooled like this.

Grenda had gotten the car for her twenty-first birthday as a gift from her rich boyfriend Marius from Austria. At first their dating thing had been silly and fun but as time went on and they continued dating on Skype it had gotten more serious. Marius now came to visit her every few months and was supposedly thinking about moving in with her permanently. Dipper was pretty sure they would eventually get married and was happy for them.

“You’re friend Bill’s not going to school with us?” Candy asked as Dipper climbed in the back of the car next to Mabel.

“No, he’s not,” Dipper said as the car started moving.

“So what’s it like being roomies with Bill?” Mabel asked after a little while.

“Not as bad as I thought it was going to be. He doesn’t snore or really make any messes and he likes to sleep in. Other than the fact that he always takes all the hot water every time he showers he’s a pretty decent housemate.”

Dipper’s only real complaint was that Bill would organize things oddly. He had set all of the books, games, and movies in the living room in reverse alphabetical order and upside down. Every time Dipper had fixed them they would always be back like that next time he checked. After the third time of this happening he had just given up, if Bill wanted to be weird he could be weird.

“Why is he staying with you anyway?” Grenda asked from her spot in the driver’s seat.

“He doesn’t really have anywhere else he could go and was kind of homeless. So I kind of took him in,” Dipper replied.

They spent the rest of the drive discussing inconsequential things, like the upcoming school semester and their possible plans for the year.

The college they were going to was called Gravity Falls Community College. It was fairly small but despite that it offered a wide variety of courses. Mabel was only going to take the classes required for her to graduate since all she wanted to do with her life was make and sell cute sweaters. Grenda was going to get a degree in writing since she wanted to become a romance author. Candy had aspirations about becoming a doctor and was taking advantage of the school’s medical program. And Dipper was going solely so that he could could attend the school’s courses having to do with the supernatural, but he was taking a few normal classes as well so that he could eventually get his graduate to.

When they reached their destination and Grenda had parked the car they all piled out and after wishing each other goodbye they all headed off to their separate classes. Candy set off towards the medical building while Mabel and Grenda headed off together because they shared their first class. Leaving Dipper alone to head to his own classes.

Unfortunately because of their different interests he and Mabel only shared one class together and that was their English class at the end of the day. So as a result he wouldn’t get to see much of his sister during the day and since she worked a part time job on the weekends they wouldn’t be spending as much time together as they normally did. But she would no doubt continue coming over every evening so it wasn’t all bad.

 

Dipper’s first few classes went well and they all met up again during lunch. The girls mostly discussed the cute boys they’d seen in their classes while Dipper quietly zoned them out to wonder what Bill was up to. Probably nothing, knowing him he was probably lazing around on the couch playing video games.

After lunch while on his way to his next class Dipper’s cell phone rang. Checking it he saw it was his home phone, meaning Bill was calling for some reason. He thought about not answering it but there was a possibility that there could be an actual emergency even though he doubted that was the case.

“What do you want Bill? I’m kind of busy right now,” Dipper said after accepting it.

“Hey Pine Tree, you picked up. I kinda thought that you might not,” Bill said.

“I told you to only call if there was an emergency,” Dipper sighed, he should’ve expected this.

“There is, the batteries in your game controller thing died and now I’m bored,” Bill complained.

“Then put more batteries in it. You do know how do that, right?” Dipper said as he paused outside the door to his next class.

“I’m not stupid, of course I know how to put batteries in things. But I can’t find any.”

“There should be some,” Dipper distinctly remembered buying a fresh pack a few days ago. “I think they’re in my office though…”

“Alright I check your office then.”

“It’s locked, so you can’t,” Dipper had made sure it was locked before he had left that morning.

“No worries I should be able to pick the lock,” Bill replied.

“Wait don’t…” Dipper began but it was too late Bill had already hung up. “God dammit.”

“What’s wrong Dip?” Mabel asked coming up behind him.

“Bill’s about to break into my office,” Dipper hoped Bill would fail to pick the lock but knew that was highly unlikely.

“Doesn’t he go in your office all the time when you’re trying to find stuff on the necromancer?” Mabel rightly pointed out.

“Yes, but only when I’m in there with him. I have stuff in there I don’t particularly want him to see,” Dipper could only hope that Bill wouldn’t dig around in his stuff too much.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine, there’s no way you can have anything in there that’s too terribly bad. Anyway I have to head to my next class now so I’ll see later,” Mabel said before heading off.

With a sigh Dipper headed into his own next class. As much as he wanted to call Bill back and tell him not to go in his office it was probably already too late. He was going to have to deal with the knowledge that Bill now had access to all of his secrets.

 

The rest of the day seemed to drag by as Dipper worried over what Bill was doing in his office. But at last the end of the school day did eventually come. And as soon Grenda dropped him off at his house he quickly rushed inside expecting to find Bill still poking around in his office. But he wasn’t, he was sitting on the couch watching the door apparently waiting for Dipper to come home.

“Hey Pine Tree, I read your book,” Bill said grinning as he held up the copy of Dipper’s book normally kept hidden away in the office’s desk drawer.

That wasn’t good. Dipper had heavily based the book off his experiences with Bill over the years. The villain of the book was basically Bill with only a few differences, same name, shape, and desire to take over the world.

“And I must say I’m flattered. I had no idea you were so inspired by me,” Bill said.

“I…uh, you just make a really good villain that’s all. Surely you didn’t read the whole thing yet, did you?”

“Yeah I read the whole thing. I liked it even though you did get some things wrong about me,” Bill said.

“Wait what did I get wrong?” Dipper asked.

“My motivation for why I wanted to take over your world. It’s not because I’m evil or because I want to be some kind of supreme ruler. I wanted to take over your world simply because I was bored and wanted something to do,” Bill said as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

“Wouldn’t that make you evil? I mean doing something like that just because you’re bored, isn’t that the kind of thing an evil person would do?”

“No, it was nothing but a game to me. A game I lost yeah, but still only just for fun. If I was actually ‘evil’ I could’ve invested the time and energy into breaking into your dimension myself. It would have taken a while but I would’ve been able to do it eventually,” Bill said.

“Wait you mean to say that all this time you could’ve broken into our dimension anytime you wanted?” Dipper asked astonished.

“No not really, it would take like a good ten years or so to force a pathway between our dimensions. But other than that yeah I could’ve if I really wanted to,” Bill replied.

“But _why_ then? Why try to destroy the journal? Why try to use the interdimensional rift? I don’t understand, why go through all that trouble if you could’ve just forced your way through?” Dipper said.

“I tried to destroy the journal so you’d be my opponent in the game, which even though I didn’t succeed in destroying it I still got what I really wanted out of it. And the interdimensional rift thing was because the rule I set myself for the game was that someone or something from your dimension had to bring me through, it’s more fun that way. Obviously you guys won that game when you destroyed it so congratulations on that,” Bill said giving a small clap.

“Why did you want me to be your opponent or whatever?” Dipper asked.

“I like you, you’re interesting. The way you figured out how do stuff in your uncle’s Mindscape, and even though you knew you couldn’t beat me you still fought me anyway. And your fascination with the journal and how you’d stay up all night pouring through it was amazing to watch,” Bill said grinning.

“You uh think I’m interesting?” Dipper couldn’t help blushing a little at being called ‘interesting’ by an ageless demon from another dimension.

“Yes, you’re positively fascinating Pine Tree,” Bill replied.

Dipper wasn’t sure how to respond to that. He’d never had anyone call him ‘fascinating’ before.

“Oh, how I wish I could read your mind right now. You look like no one’s ever said anything nice to you until now.”

“Well uh, whatever,” Dipper said wanting to quickly move on from talking about himself anymore. “So I guess you’re not technically evil just a bit strange. But uh, you say we won your game. Does that mean you’re no longer going to try to take over our world?”

“Yeah, why would I? I've already lost remember? Also once I’m finally free of this body I’ll have much more important stuff to worry about than a silly game.”

“Like what?”

“Destroying the necromancer who did this to me. Then finding whatever dimension he came from and destroying that to,” Bill said deadly serious all of a sudden.

“And if you never get free?”

Bill paused for a few seconds before answering, “I can’t think about that possibility. If I consider it even for a second I'd go insane. I’d rather stop existing than have to spend the rest of eternity trapped like this. So I’m going to go ahead and continue ignoring that possibility.”

Did Bill really just say he’d rather die than stay like that forever?

“Is it really that bad? I mean at least you’re still alive and not chained up in a crypt anymore right?” Dipper asked.

“Well yeah not being physically chained up anymore is a huge improvement but I still can’t do anything. For you it’d be like losing almost all the function in your limbs and having your senses dulled at the same time,” Bill explained.

“Yeah, I guess that’d be pretty awful,” Dipper still wasn’t sure how what Bill was going through could be quite that bad, but Bill was from another dimension and that might have something to with it.

“Anyway Pine Tree, in your office you have like three books about me and more that probably mention me,” Bill said interrupting Dipper’s thoughts.

It was true, Dipper did have multiple books about Bill in his office. They were the reason why he hadn’t wanted Bill in there in the first place. He had got them to try to find a way to defeat Bill but they had all said that the ‘Triangle Demon’, as the books referred to him as, had no weaknesses and was unstoppable. Apparently they had all been wrong.

“They didn’t happen to mention anything that might be related to any of this, did they? I didn’t really have time to read them yet,” Bill said.

“No they don’t have anything like that in them,” Dipper said with a sigh before heading into his office.

“Not surprising, I suppose,” Bill murmured as he followed Dipper.

Dipper was surprised to find that Bill had cleaned his office. All the books and papers normally piled on and around the desk were now neatly sorted on the books selves or stacked perfectly on the corner of the desk. Of course Bill had placed everything upside down and in reverse alphabetical order for whatever reason.

“Why did you do this?” Dipper asked Bill who was standing in the doorway.

“Do what?”

“Clean my office and sort everything all weird?”

“Because I like that way and to mess with you,” Bill grinned.

Dipper briefly thought about fixing it but Bill would no doubt put everything back next time he got an opportunity. Besides his office had needed organizing anyway and who really cared if it was bit odd at least it was clean and it would be easy to find things again.

Deciding he didn’t care anymore Dipper turned to Bill and said, “You wanna play some video games?”

“Uh, sure,” Bill said following Dipper back into the living room.


	9. Nightmares

A couple weeks later after a particularly stressful day Dipper was having trouble falling asleep. He couldn’t get his mind off a point in his book where he was having trouble. He couldn’t decide if the character he had based off of Bill should continue to be ruthlessly evil or if he should change it so that the character resembled the real Bill Cipher. He was stuck on it and ended up laying there tossing and turning for hours running the decision through his mind.

It was almost midnight when he heard a small sound coming from Bill’s side of the room. He wasn’t really sure what it was at first until he heard it again a few minutes later. It sounded like a small whimper or moan maybe.

“Bill?” Dipper whispered as he got out of bed to check on his roommate.

Bill was very tense, curled up in a tight ball with a fearful expression on his face seemingly caught up in some kind of horrific nightmare. “No…” he whimpered quietly to whatever monstrosity was haunting his dreams.

Dipper wasn’t really sure what he should do. How would Bill react to being seen like this? He probably wouldn't like it very much might get upset about it. But when he made another pitiful whimpering sound Dipper knew he had to wake him up.

Reaching out his hand he gently shook Bill’s shoulder. Bill immediately reacted by tightly grabbing his wrist as he shot up into a sitting position. He looked around the room confused for a few seconds before his eyes met Dipper’s and he seemed to relax a little.

“Oh, it’s only you Pine Tree. What do you want?” he said as he finally released Dipper’s wrist.

“You were having a nightmare so I was waking you up,” Dipper replied.

“I was not. Why would I be having a nightmare? I’m…I’m a being of pure energy with few weaknesses. What reason do I have to be afraid of anything?” Bill said weakly unable to hide his despair.

“It’s all right Bill, you don’t have to be ashamed of it,” Dipper said in his best soothing voice, he really had no idea how to comfort someone who had just had nightmare.

“Are you going to rub it my face now?” Bill asked sullenly.

“No, of course not,” Dipper said guiltily remembering all the times he had ‘rubbed’ Bill’s situation in his face. In his defense though he hadn’t done anything like that in a long while, not since the scene in the library anyway.

“Well there’s that at least,” Bill said as he hugged his legs to his chest turning his face towards the wall.

Dipper had never seen Bill look or sound so defeated before and he had to admit he didn’t like it. He wondered just what Bill had been having a nightmare about, probably something to do with the necromancer if he had to guess, but knew asking about it would only make him more upset.

“Are you uh going to be okay? Do you need me to get you anything?” Dipper asked unsure of what else he could say.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine so you can just go away now,” Bill replied weakly waving his hand.

“Does this happen a lot?” Dipper asked.

“No… well actually yeah sort of, just every few nights,” Bill sighed “Look can you please not tell anyone about this and just pretend you didn’t see anything?”

“I won’t tell anyone,” Dipper assured him. “But uh are you sure you’re going to be okay?” He wasn’t really sure what he could do for Bill if he wasn’t going to be okay but still felt like he had to ask.

“Yeah, I’m fine so please just go away,” Bill replied still refusing to look at Dipper.

“All right, I guess goodnight then,” Dipper said before returning his own bed. He wished there was something more he could do but couldn’t think of anything that would help.

As he lay there he watched Bill, who just sat there doing nothing and appearing deep in thought. But after several minutes had elapsed Bill lay back down and didn’t seem to stir anymore. Soon after Dipper decided Bill was probably going to be all right and allowed himself to relax and go back to sleep as well.

 

The next morning when Dipper woke up at his normal time Bill was still sleeping also as usual. He looked peaceful, as if last night had never happened. It made Dipper wonder just how long he’d been having those nightmares. Probably ever since he’d moved in and Dipper had had no idea until just last night. In fact they’d been sleeping in the same room for a good long while now and he hadn’t ever figured it out, Bill’s whimpers had been much too quiet to wake him under normal circumstances.

Bill stayed in bed longer than usual that morning. He didn’t come out until it was a little past noon when Dipper was thinking about going in to check on him.

“Good morning Pine Tree,” he said in his usual cheery fashion as he walked through the living room to the kitchen.

Dipper briefly considered asking him about last night but decided not to. If Bill wanted to pretend it had never happened then Dipper would respect that and not bring it up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about how short this chapter is but I felt like this scene really deserved to be on its own. I didn't want it to feel like an afterthought on the last chapter and it would've felt out of place at the beginning of the next chapter. So I went ahead and it made it it's own chapter. I hope you guys don't mind too terribly much.
> 
>  
> 
> P.S. Thank you so very much to everyone who left a comment saying that they like this story and to everyone who gave it kudos, you guys well never understand just how wonderfully happy you've made me.


	10. A Not so Normal Day of School

Over the next month Dipper didn’t catch Bill having any more nightmares, that didn’t mean he wasn’t having any though. If what he said was true then he was having them every few nights at least. Dipper considered asking about them on numerous occasions but always decided against it. Bill probably wouldn’t have answered any questions about it anyway so there was no real point in asking.

Dipper had pretty much given up entirely on ever finding anything on the necromancer by this point, he didn’t even pretend to try anymore. Bill never said anything one way or the other about this but Dipper suspected he was purposefully not thinking about it and might even be in some form of denial over it. And again Dipper didn’t feel like he could bring up the necromancer or anything related to him without upsetting Bill so he avoided the topic all together.

Mabel of course had continued to come over every evening to hang out with them. One night she had commented to Dipper that she was glad he finally a had real friend other than herself. He hadn’t really realized before then that she and Bill were his only real friends but he didn’t really care either.

One Monday morning when Dipper woke up to get ready for school Bill was already out of bed for some reason. That was odd, Bill had never been up this early before.

Confused Dipper stepped out to see Bill in the living room already dressed and looking ready for the day. “Hey Pine Tree, can I go to college with you today?”

“Why?” Dipper asked as he went into the kitchen and began preparing breakfast for himself.

“I’m bored of being stuck in the house all day and I want to go out and do something,” Bill replied.

“Yeah, but coming to school with me? What could you possibly get out of that?”

“Something that’s not sitting around here all day.”

Dipper thought about it for a moment. There wasn’t really any reason why he couldn’t come, his classes were kind of big so it probably wouldn’t be all that hard to sneak him in. Then again Bill would no doubt be distracting and would probably end up complaining about being bored anyway. But still it had to be boring just sitting around the house alone all day.

“Fine you can come, but only if you promise not to distract me. Which means no complaining or talking to me during class,” Dipper said.

“Sure I can do that, no problem,” Bill promised.

Dipper doubted that, but was willing to give him a chance anyway. Who knew, Bill was often full of surprises and might actually be able to keep quiet for once.

 

“What’s Bill doing here?” Mabel asked when Dipper and Bill climbed in the back of Grenda’s car next to her.

“I’m bored, so I want to see what Pine Tree’s college life is like,” Bill replied.

“Why aren’t you attending college for real then?” Candy asked from her usual spot in the passenger seat.

“Because I don’t need to, nor do I want to,” Bill said.

“I guess it doesn’t really matter as long as you have Dipper to feed you,” Candy replied shrugging.

For the rest of the car ride the girls chatted about inconsequential topics. When they arrived at the school Bill happily followed after Dipper to his first class.

“I’m bored Pine Tree,” Bill whispered about half way through.

“Yeah, well you’re the one who wanted to come,” Dipper replied.

“How long before something interesting finally happens?” Bill complained.

“Shut up Bill, I need to pay attention. Find something to entertain yourself with or just leave.”

“But Pine Tree…” Bill began but stopped when Dipper shot him an angry glare. “Okay, fine I’ll be quiet.”

He then stole a piece of paper from Dipper and began drawing something on it. Luckily this kept him occupied for the next few class periods.

The last class before they were due to go to lunch was a demonology class. A class all about various demons throughout history, most of them were real but Dipper knew some of them were probably fictional. It was hands down his favourite class and he was excited to see if Bill would have anything interesting to say about whatever type of demon they’d be learning about today.

They arrived kind of early, before the professor even, and on the chalkboard was a large drawing of a one-eyed triangle with a brick pattern wearing a top hat and bow tie.

Dipper’s heart sank when he saw it. Why did the professor have to choose today of all days to start teaching about this particular demon?

Bill of course grinned widely when at the sight of it. “Hey Pine Tree, looks like you’re professor gonna try to teach about me today. Let’s see just how much he gets wrong.”

“Bill hush, please don’t let them know that that’s you,” Dipper said trying to get Bill to stop admiring his image on the chalkboard and come sit in the back of the class.

“Yeah I know, I don’t really want them knowing either. But still you never told me that you had a class like this. I wonder how accurate their information is,” Bill said steadfastly refusing to move from his spot in front of the chalkboard.

Just then the professor walked in, a fifty something year old man who was supposedly an expert of sorts on demons from other dimensions. “Hello Dipper, good to see you still like come to class early. And uh who’s your friend here?” he said.

“I like the drawing on your chalkboard,” Bill said before Dipper could respond.

“Yeah that’s the Triangle Demon, he’s a powerful dream demon from another dimension,” the professor replied.

“Hmm, tell me how much do you actually know about him?” Bill asked, again before Dipper could try to interrupt.

“Well, we know he’s appeared to people all throughout history, some ancient tribes even worshiped him as an all-seeing god. He can communicate with people through their dreams and can supposedly see anything and everything, he might even be watching this very conversation,” the professor said clearly trying to sound spooky but in light of the actual situation sounded rather ridiculous.

“Yeah, he could be in this very room right now, who knows?” Bill said grinning knowingly. “And I suppose you do know _some_ stuff, but do you know any of the more interesting facts about him?”

“Of course, this entire week is dedicated to studying him. He’s thought to be one of the most powerful demons in existence so obviously in a demonology class we’re going to spend some time learning about him. You’re welcome to sit in on the classes if you wish,” the professor offered with a kind smile.

“I just might do that. Come on Pine Tree, class is about to start, let’s go sit in the back,” Bill said with a smug smile on his face as he led the way to the back row.

Dipper was grateful that that conversation was finally over but now he would no doubt have to put up with Bill being all smug and annoying for the rest of the class period and maybe some time after to.

But as it turned out as time went on and the professor went over 'the Triangle Demon's' many powers Bill slowly lost his smug expression and became more depressed instead. And by three quarters of the way through it he sunk his head down onto the desk using his arms hide his face.

“You okay Bill?” Dipper whispered to him.

His only response was a low moan.

“Come on Bill, what’s wrong? You were all smug and happy not that long ago. What happened?”

“This has reminded me of how far I’ve fallen. He’s talking about me like I’m all powerful and unbeatable. But it’s a lie. I’m weak, powerless, and I can’t do anything about it,” Bill whispered back sighing heavily as he dropped his face onto the desk again.

“That’s not true, you’re still powerful and stuff but you’re just temporarily... not right now,” Dipper stammered trying to think of something that would make Bill feel better. “Look I’m sure we’ll uh figure something out eventually.”

“You really think so?” Bill asked glancing hopefully up at him.

“Yeah, totally. There's got to be some way to break the curse on you,” Dipper lied, he didn’t believe they could ever figure out how to break the curse. He didn't see how that it could be possible, the necromancer had seemingly vanished off the face of the earth without leaving any trace that he had ever been. But if that belief made Bill feel a little better then Dipper would go ahead and lie to him about it.

For the rest of the class period Bill didn’t say anything else, he just sat there looking kind of depressed. But at least Dipper’s lie seemed to make him feel a little better since he didn’t hide his face in the desk anymore.

After class was over they went to the cafeteria to meet up with Mabel.

“Hey Dipper, how was class with Bill?” she asked as they all sat down for lunch together.

“It was okay,” Dipper said not wanting Mabel to know about Bill’s depression.

 

“Well I had a great day, there’s this hot guy in one of my classes and I think he likes me.” She then went on to tell them all about how cute this guy was and how she hoped he would ask her out one day.

 

Dipper’s next class after lunch was history, probably his second favourite class. Mostly because he thought the teacher, a young twenty-something blonde woman, was hot. He felt like he could listen to her talk for forever. But unfortunately she was already married so Dipper would never have a chance with her, not to mention she was his teacher which would make any relationship they had awkward.

About halfway through the class Bill began poking Dipper’s shoulder. He’d been mesmerized by the teacher’s voice so he didn’t notice to at first and even when he did notice he tried his best to ignore it. But it did eventually become too annoying to overlook.

“What do you want?” he asked turning towards Bill.

“She has a tattoo,” Bill said as he finally stopped poking Dipper’s shoulder and pointed to a girl sitting a couple rows in front of them, who had a blatant tattoo of a snake running up one of her arms.

“Yeah so?” Dipper asked annoyed.

“Do you think a tattoo artist could remove the runes on my body?”

“I don’t know, maybe. I mean like is it even a tattoo?” Dipper hadn’t considered that possibility before. He wasn’t really sure it would work but no doubt now that Bill had thought of it he would insist on trying it.

“No, it’s not really a tattoo but maybe it acts like one. Anyway we should try it once we’re done with this nonsense,” Bill said surprising no one ever.

“Not today, maybe some other day,” Dipper said.

“But…then when? Tomorrow?” Bill pleaded.

“How ‘bout this weekend?” Dipper didn’t really want to spend the money to try to get the runes removed, especially since it probably wouldn’t work anyway. But no doubt Bill would be a pain about it until he agreed.

“Friday?”

“No, Saturday,” Dipper said putting a metaphorical foot down.


	11. A Narcissistic Tattoo

Every day leading up to Saturday Bill reminded Dipper of his promise to take him to a tattoo parlor to try to get the runes removed. Dipper had told him multiple times that it probably wouldn’t work but he still insisted on giving it a try.

It wasn’t until Friday that he got a call from his Gruncle Stan inviting him and Mabel to come down the Mystery Shack now that the weather was nice. The Mystery Shack was all the way on the other side of town and as a result it took more than an hour to drive down there and was impossible to get to when there was a ton of snow on the roads.

He had of course accepted the offer to go down and visit. Mabel was even taking off work for the day so that she could come to. But what was Dipper going to do about Bill? He could easily go down there after they were done at the tattoo parlor but what if Bill wanted to come with them? And if he did come with them would he want to reveal himself? Would Dipper want him to reveal himself?

Dipper realized that he’d never told anyone other than Mabel about Bill’s situation. And now he wasn’t sure if he wanted either of his great uncles knowing. They definitely would not approve of how friendly he and Bill were becoming and they would probably try to do something about it.

So that night after Mabel had left and they were getting ready to go to bed Dipper turned to Bill and said, “I’m uh heading down to the Mystery Shack sometime tomorrow, so we should try your tattoo removal idea in the morning. Which means you’re going to need to wake up at a reasonable time.”

“Yeah, I can do that. But when you go down there, can you make sure _not_ to tell Sixer about me? I would really prefer it if he and everyone else never found out,” Bill replied.

“I wasn’t planning on telling him,” Dipper said relieved that Bill hadn’t asked to come.

“Be sure to tell Shooting Star not to say anything about me either. But hopefully this’ll work and it won’t matter anyway,” Bill said optimistically.

 

The next morning Dipper was woken up at what felt like the crack of dawn but was really only seven in the morning by Bill turning on the lights and pulling off his covers.

“Wake up Pine Tree, it’s time to go possibly get rid of these stupid runes,” Bill said way to excited for this early in the morning.

“Good morning to you to,” Dipper mumbled as he dragged himself out of bed.

“Hurry up and get ready. I need to know if this’ll work.” Bill replied impatiently.

After a quick shower and a change of clothes Dipper headed to the kitchen to make some coffee. He was surprised to find that Bill had already made some. He was even more surprised when upon trying it he found that it hadn’t been messed up in anyway.

After breakfast they hopped into Dipper’s car. Dipper was pretty sure he knew where a tattoo parlor was so he didn’t think it would take long to find.

When they got there the place had just opened and as a result the only person inside was a young receptionist who greeted them when they walked. “How can I help you two?” she asked with a pleasant smile.

“My uh friend here has a tattoo he needs removed,” Dipper said.

“Okay, I’ll just need you to sign in and stuff,” she said.

“Alright and how much does it cost?” Dipper said as he signed the book wishing he’d checked online before coming down here.

“Three hundred,” the receptionist replied.

“Ugh, fine,” Dipper said handing her his credit card. He didn’t really want to pay that much but he knew Bill really wanted to try this and would be mad at him if he went back on his word.

So after the receptionist had handed his card back along with the receipt they went through a black curtain to the back room. The tattoo artist, a thin guy with a shaved head with tattoos covering one entire arm and part of the other, was just finishing setting up shop.

“Okay, which one of you dudes is getting a tattoo?” he asked.

“That’s not what we’re here for,” Bill said taking off his shirt, “Do you think you could get rid this?” he gestured to the writing on his chest.

“Sure I can, but uh what even is that? Looks like some sort of mythical writing or something,” the guy said squinting at it.

“It’s a long story,” Bill replied.

“Alright then, just lay down here while I go get my tools,” the guy said before heading off.

“Do you think this’ll work Pine Tree?” Bill asked as he lay on the table the guy had indicated.

“I don’t know, we’ll see,” Dipper didn’t really think it would but he knew Bill wouldn’t listen to him if he said so.

The tattoo artist came back a few minutes later with the equipment he needed. After warning that it would hurt he set to work. But after several minutes his facial expression grew confused.

“What’s with this tattoo? Why isn’t this working?” he said.

“Figures it wouldn’t work,” Bill sighed disappointed.

“Where did you even get this thing? Whatever kind of ink they used isn’t coming out for some reason,” the tattooist continued befuddled. “This stuff if probably dangerous, you might want to go see a doctor or something.”

“It’s perfectly safe, just apparently hard to remove,” Bill said sounding rather depressed about it.

“Well I suggest you go to wherever you got it then since my tools apparently don’t work on it.”

Bill thought for a few seconds before saying, “Do you think that because Pine Tree already paid for this you could give me a tattoo instead, since you can’t remove this one?”

“Yeah, I suppose I could do that. What do want and where do you want it?” the tattooist asked.

“On my back. Do you have a pen and paper I could draw on to show you what I want?” Bill said.

The guy handed him a piece of paper and some coloured markers, Bill began drawing on it. Dipper curious walked over to see what he was drawing. He wasn’t surprised to find that Bill was drawing a picture of himself as he normally looked; triangular.

“Yeah, that’d be real easy to do? How big do you want it?” the tattooist said once Bill had handed him the picture.

“As big as you can make it,” Bill replied already laying down on the table again only this time on his front.

“Alright then, but this is going to take a while so you might want to come back later,” the tattooist said addressing Dipper.

Dipper sighed, he didn’t really approve of Bill getting a tattoo, especially one like that. But he had already coughed up the money so they might as well get something out of it. Besides it would give Bill something to do while Dipper was at the Mystery Shack.

So after the tattooist had given him an estimated time of completion Dipper left saying, “Okay, I’ll see you later then Bill.”

 

Dipper then went to go pick up Mabel from her place to head down to the Mystery Shack with her.

“Hey Dip, what’s Bill going to do all day while we’re up at the Shack?” Mabel asked after she’d climbed into the passenger seat.

“He’s getting a tattoo of himself,” Dipper then went on to explain about Bill’s failed plan to get the runes removed.

“Wow, I guess that’s not really surprising though is it?” Mabel replied. “But uh me and Pacifica were talking online last night and she said she’s finally coming back to Gravity Falls after she graduates this semester. Meaning we get to hang out with her again this summer, isn’t that exciting?”

Pacifica and Mabel had become close friends over the years. But because Pacifica’s family was rich she had been almost forced to go overseas to attend a ‘proper’ college as her parents called it. She had been made to go immediately after she’d finished high school, meaning that for the past few years she and Mabel had been only able talk to each other online.

“That’s good,” Dipper wasn’t nearly as excited as Mabel was about Pacifica’s return. Things between him and Pacifica weren’t necessarily bad, just a bit awkward. They had kind of dated for a couple of weeks when they had both been like fifteen, but it hadn’t really worked out. And even though they had parted on good terms and were still friendly with each other it was still kind of awkward sometimes.

Mabel spent the rest of the car ride chatting to him about all the cool things she was going to be doing with Pacifica that summer. Dipper only half paid attention, nodding at the right times so she would think he was listening.

About an hour later Dipper pulled up next to the oh so familiar Mystery Shack. He and Mabel had come here every summer since that first time and it held some of his fondest memories.

It was still kind of early so the Shack wasn’t open yet so they had to knock on the door and wait for somebody to let them in. Thankfully they didn’t have to wait long.

“What’s up dudes?” Wendy said as she opened the door allowing them to enter. “You guys are here early.”

Wendy was now co-manager of the Mystery Shack which was probably why she was here so early in the morning. Stan hadn’t wanted to promote her at first but when Dipper and Mabel had had to move across town to be closer to their college he’d caved. She now did any job that Stan either couldn’t or didn’t want to do. One of her younger brothers had taken over her duty at the cash register.

“Hey Wendy,” Dipper said. He had gotten over his crush on her a long time ago, even though he did still find her attractive.

“Stan’s still sleeping and Ford’s in the basement if you want to go find them,” Wendy said.

Stan and Ford had mostly settled their differences over the years and now peacefully lived together in the Shack. At first Ford hadn’t liked how his brother had been using the place to con people, but had eventually gotten used to it. And he would now occasionally help Stan prank the tourists so they could get more money out of them.

“Hey Gruncle Stan, we’re here to visit,” Mabel called loudly as she ran further into the house presumably to go wake up their great uncle.

A few minutes later she came back followed by a very tired looking Gruncle Stan. “Why do you kids have to get here so early in the morning?” he complained.

“Good morning to you to Gruncle Stan,” Dipper said.

Not too terribly long later Ford came up from behind the vending machine that hid the staircase to the basement. “Hello, Dipper, Mabel, how’s it going?” he said.

“Good but guess what,” Mabel began excitedly, “Dipper has a new roommate and you’ll never guess who it is. It’s…”

“Not anybody you know,” Dipper cut in quickly. “He’s a friend from California so you wouldn’t know who is.”

Mabel gave him a brief look before she caught on, “Oh, yeah I uh guess you wouldn’t know him.”

Dipper breathed a sigh of relief, he couldn’t believe he’d forgotten to tell Mabel not to say anything about Bill. He had no idea how they would react if they ever did find out but knew it probably wouldn’t be pleasant, especially in Ford’s case.

“Is he cute?” Wendy asked.

“Uh, yeah, he’s kind of cute but I don’t think he’s in to dating,” Mabel said.

“Why didn’t you bring him?” Stan said.

“Because… he was busy,” Dipper replied.

“Well there’s always next weekend,” Ford said. “Now how have you two kids been doing in college?”

“Oh, fantastic,” Mabel said excitedly before talking to them about all the cute boys in her classes and how much fun everything was.

And so they spent the day hanging out at the Shack. They talked about life and school and how business at the Shack was going. Dipper went out of his way to not mention Bill in any context and occasionally when someone else brought up his roommate he was thankfully always able to dodge the question.

 

During the drive home Mabel turned to him and asked, “Why don’t you want them knowing about Bill? I’m sure if we explained his situation they would understand.”

“I’m not sure they would. You see Gruncle Ford has some… history with Bill and I’m not sure what he would do if he knew how powerless Bill is now,” Dipper explained. “Besides Bill specifically asked me not to tell him or anyone else.”

“But what if you brought Bill next time we go down there, then they would see he’s actually a cool guy. Then like we could all be friends,” she replied.

“Yeah, I don’t see anything like that happening any time soon."

“Maybe introduce them to each other first and don’t tell them who Bill is until later. I’m sure that once they get to know Bill they’ll see he really isn’t that bad, you know like we did,” Mabel suggested.

“If Bill wants to do that sure, but I really don’t think he does," Dipper said.

“Oh okay, if Bill really doesn’t want them knowing then I guess I won’t tell them,” Mabel conceded.

 

After dropping off Mabel at her house Dipper then went back down to the tattoo parlor. He arrived just in time apparently as Bill had just finished getting his tattoo.

“Hey Pine Tree, check it out. Isn’t it cool?” he said turning around and pulling his shirt up so Dipper could see his new tattoo. It took up pretty much all of the space on his back and was just a simple picture of his normal golden triangle form.

“Yep, that’s you all right,” Dipper replied. “But don’t you think it’s a bit narcissistic to get a tattoo of yourself?”

“Maybe a little, but who cares? This is the closest I will ever get to making this body actually look like me,” Bill replied as they climbed into Dipper’s car.

“Just as long as you don’t show anyone who might be able to guess who you are,” Dipper said starting the car.

“Of course not, I’d rather not have anyone else knowing what happened to me. But uh speaking of that, how’d it go at the Mystery Shack? You didn’t uh say anything about me, did you?”

“No, Mabel was going to but I stopped her,” Dipper replied.

“Good,” Bill said.

         

When they got home they spent the rest of day playing video games together like they usually did until Mabel came over. Of course when she did come over Bill had to proudly show her his new tattoo.

“Ooh, I’ve always kind of wanted a tattoo but was always too afraid to get one. Did it hurt?” Mabel said.

“Yeah, that was the best part. You should’ve seen the guy’s face when I told him I liked the pain, it was hilarious. He asked me if I was some sort of weird masochist or something,” Bill replied grinning.

“What’d you tell him?” Mabel asked.

“I told him that physical pain is one of the most interesting feelings a human can experience. I wish I could’ve read his mind right then, I pretty sure he suspects I’m some sort of weird alien or something now,” he replied.

They spent the rest of the evening talking and hanging out as usual. Before leaving Mabel had told Dipper that one day she was going to get a tattoo and that he should get one to so that they would match. Dipper had told her that he would think about it but he was pretty sure he never would especially after Bill told him that he should totally do it.


	12. What Goes Up Must Come Down

The following Saturday Dipper went down to the Shack again but he only stayed for a few hours before heading home because Mabel couldn’t come with him this time. He got back home at around midday.

“Oh Pine Tree thank goodness you’re back, I feel awful,” Bill complained loudly in a nasally voice as soon as Dipper walked in the door.

“Why? What’s wrong?” Dipper guessed he was probably sick with a cold or something based off his voice.

“I can’t breath and my nose is all gross and wet and…” Bill paused for a slight coughing fit, “I keep coughing, and I feel all cold and weak. It’s awful Pine Tree, make it stop.”

“You’re sick, I can’t make it stop,” Dipper couldn’t help but feel a little amused over how Bill was reacting to being sick for the first time. Of course he would probably catch it now to, but whatever.

“But it’s gross and horrible and I hate it,” Bill whined giving Dipper a piteous look. “Please Pine Tree you have to do something, I don’t think I can take much more of this.”

With a sigh Dipper went to go grab the ear thermometer from the bathroom. After putting on one of the plastic cover things he gestured Bill over, who walked over reluctantly giving the thermometer a distrustful look.

“Hold still while I take your temperature,” Dipper said as he as inserted the thermometer in Bill’s ear causing him to make an unhappy noise. After holding the button down for several seconds it beeped signaling it was finished. Pulling it out Dipper saw it read 101.5°F.

“How bad is it? Am I dying?” Bill asked pitifully.

“You’ll be fine, you’re barely even running a fever,” Dipper assured him as he put the thermometer away.

After another small coughing fit Bill said “Well it sucks. But why aren’t you sick? Aren’t these things supposed to be contagious?”

“I don’t know, I probably will be later unless I’m lucky and somehow don’t catch it from you,” Dipper replied.

Without warning Bill took a step closer, closing the distance between them. He then stood on his toes and licked all down the side of Dipper's face.

“What the fuck!?” Dipper exclaimed flinching and pulling away. “Bill that’s disgusting.”

“There now you’ll get sick too,” Bill said grinning.

Dipper quickly made his way to the kitchen for a paper towel to wipe Bill’s disgusting spit on his face. He then went back to the bathroom to wash his face properly with soap and water.

“Now you’ll have suffer with me,” Bill said laughing.

“Ugh, if you ever do anything like that again I’ll hit you,” Dipper said as he dried his face on a clean towel.

Bill’s only response was to laugh some more. But thankfully this time his mirth was interrupted by another coughing fit.

“You know what, I think I’m going to go work on my book now. You can be sick out here alone for a little while,” Dipper said.

“But Pine Tree…” Bill whined loudly, “I feel awful. Make me feel better.”

Dipper grabbed a bottle of cough syrup from the cabinet in the bathroom. “Drink a little of this and take a nap then,” he said tossing it at Bill. And then without even checking to see if Bill had caught it he went into his office closing and locking the door behind him.

Dipper pushed aside his annoyance with Bill to focus on writing his book. He was almost done with the first draft and knew he could finish it in the next couple of weeks if he really set his mind to it. Of course in the next few days he would no doubt come down with whatever Bill had and might not feel up to writing much. But for now he would write for as long as he could.

A few hours later Dipper when reached a good stopping point and it was nearing the time when Mabel  would usually came over he decided he'd written enough for the day. After saving his work he stretched and walked out of his office and back into the living room.

Bill was lying on the couch wrapped in his yellow blanket watching another slasher film. He looked up as Dipper approached. “Hey Pine Tree, how’s your book going?” his voice sounded a bit odd and slower than usual for some reason.

“Alright I guess,” Dipper replied as he sat on the other end of the couch. “You feeling any better?”

“Yeah, I feel amazing. That stuff you gave is like a miracle. I don’t think I’ve ever felt this good before,” Bill said as he sluggishly sat up.

“How much of that cough syrup did you take?” Dipper asked. Judging based off the glazed look in his eyes Dipper suspected it might have been more than the recommended dosage.

“The the entire bottle,” Bill replied giggling.

Dipper sighed, “Come to think of it giving you the whole bottle probably wasn’t a very good idea.”

“It’s amazing Pine Tree,” Bill said as moved closer to Dipper. “I don’t think I’ve _ever_ felt like this before. It’s fascinating the way chemicals and stuff can affect you humans so much. Like I want go and try all those other drugs now to and see what they feel like.”

“Yeah no, not in my house,” Dipper wasn’t about to allow his roommate to become a drug addict. “Besides tomorrow or whenever you come down from your high you’re probably going to feel even worse than you did before.”

“You could get high with me Pine Tree, it’s amazing I promise,” Bill said basically ignoring Dipper’s words.

“Yeah, still no,” Dipper said.

“Oh Pine Tree you’re no fun. But that’s okay ‘cause I still like you anyway.”

Bill then moved even closer to Dipper, uncomfortably close. He then leaned right up against him with his head resting on Dipper’s shoulder.

“Do you have any concept of personal space?” Dipper asked as he pushed Bill away.

“But you’re warm Pine Tree,” Bill complained as he lay back on his side of the couch putting his feet up on Dipper’s lap.

Without even saying anything this time Dipper pushed Bill’s feet off. His only response was a look of betrayal.

Dipper then grabbed the remote and began channel surfing. He ignored Bill’s halfhearted complaints about not being able to see the end of whatever gore fest he’d been watching.

A few minutes later Mabel walked in at her usual time. “Hey guys, what’s up?” she said.

“Bill’s high on cold medicine,” Dipper said.

“Yeah and it’s amazing, you should try it sometime Shooting Star,” Bill said grinning up at her.

“Candy accidentally got high on cold medicine one time. She said it was fun until the next day. And I got high on Smile Dip that one time and that was certainly an interesting experience,” Mabel said.

“’Smile Dip’? What’s that?” Bill asked.

“It’s candy. It’s banned in America because if you eat too much of it you start to see some really weird shit,” Mabel said.

“What kind of weird shit?” Bill asked. “And do you know where I can get some?”

“I do know where to get some I think, but it’s probably not a very good idea,” Mabel replied.

“Oh, but I bet it would be fun to try,” Bill said. “Come on, just tell me where to find some.”

Dipper sighed, “Mabel whatever you do don't ever tell him where to get any of that stuff, he doesn't need it.”

Bill stared at him with a disappointed look on his face for several seconds before saying, “You know Pine Tree I’ve never really noticed before but you have a very pretty face.”

Then while Dipper was trying to formulate some kind of response to such a random compliment Bill reached out and slipped his hat off his head. He then pushed Dipper’s hair back and began tracing Dipper’s birthmark with his finger.

“What are you even doing?” Dipper asked quickly pulling back and pushing Bill’s hand away.

“Your birthmark’s interesting and I barely ever get to see it since you always have covered up all the time,” Bill said pulling back a little too.

“Are you okay Bill? You’re acting real weird,” Mabel said.

“I feel amazing Shooting Star,” Bill said slowly with a relaxed smile on his face.

“See I told you he’s high as a kite,” Dipper said.

“I’m just glad I’m not going to be here when he comes down from it,” Mabel said.

“Yeah, he’ll probably go back to complaining about being sick again,” Dipper said not looking forward to it.

“There’s that but also according to Candy the hangover from it is really bad, she said she felt like she’d been run over by a truck the next day. She spent that whole day lying in bed and nothing me and Grenda did made her feel any better.” Mabel said.

Oh boy, that’s just what Dipper wanted, more reasons for Bill to complain to him.

“Stop talking about me like I’m not here,” Bill said. “I’m sure it’ll be fine, pain isn’t a big deal to me. Besides it can’t really be _that_ bad, can it?”

“Whatever you say. Anyway Dipper it’s time to make dinner,” Mabel said cheerfully leading the way to the kitchen.

 

That night when Dipper went to bed he was already starting to feel a little ill. Meaning Bill hadn’t needed to be gross and lick him because he was already doomed to begin with. But whatever he could be sick without being a big baby about it.

Sometime in the middle of the night he was awoken by the sound of Bill coughing and moaning piteously. He was having another nightmare only this time his normally quiet whimpers were much louder, loud enough to disturb Dipper’s sleep.

So Dipper sat up, walked over and shook Bill’s shoulder lightly. At first he got no response, so he shook his shoulder a little harder and this time Bill reacted by shooting up and tightly grabbing Dipper’s wrist reminding him of the other time he'd woken his roommate up from a nightmare. Also like last time Bill looked around the room confused for a few seconds before his eyes rested on Dipper and he relaxed a little.

“Ugh, Pine Tree I feel awful. Even worse than I did earlier,” He moaned as he released Dipper’s hand.

Bill looked awful too, overly pale in the dim light with bags under his eyes. He was shivering or perhaps shaking as he pulled his legs up to his chest.

“Are you okay? You need me to get you anything?” Dipper asked.

“No,” Bill groaned still shivering.

Dipper wasn’t really sure what to do. He hadn’t been able to comfort Bill last time he'd been woken up by his nightmare, but now he was sick and hungover as well as shaken by whatever horrifying thing haunted his dreams. How could he possibly help Bill now? But at least Bill hadn’t told him to go away this time.

“I’m cold Pine Tree. Will you warm me up?” Bill said softly enough that Dipper almost couldn’t make it out, as if he was embarrassed to ask.

“Um, yeah, I can do that I guess,” Dipper replied not really sure what Bill actually wanted him to do.

It wasn’t until Bill scooted a little away from the edge of the bed and gestured for him to come closer that Dipper got what Bill had in mind. So reluctantly Dipper sat on the bed next to Bill, who immediately snuggled up against his side. Unsure of what else to do in such a position Dipper gingerly placed his arm around Bill allowing him to move even closer.

“Hmmm, you’re warm,” Bill said softy as his shivering finally started to subside.

They sat like that for several minutes in an awkward silence before Bill spoke again still speaking in a voice barely above a whisper, “I feel awful Pine Tree, like I didn’t even think it was possible I could feel this way, especially after I felt so good earlier.”

“I bet you regret drinking the whole bottle of cold medicine now huh?” Dipper said trying to lighten the mood a little.

“Hmmm, never Pine Tree, I’ll never regret that,” Bill said sounding a little more like his usual self again. “I just wish I didn’t have to deal with that dream tonight, it's hard to push it out of my mind when I feel like this.” Bill's voice almost fell to nothing again as he spoke that last part.

Dipper really wasn’t sure how he should respond to that. He’d never had to comfort anyone like this before. In fact he didn't think he'd ever even known anyone else who had trouble with nightmares. He’d also never had anyone cuddle up next to him like this either, it was awkward and Bill was uncomfortably warm against his side.

After a few minutes Bill’s breathing deepened and he seemed to relax more against Dipper. He was sleeping at least but Dipper didn’t know what to do now. Could he lay Bill back on the bed without waking him? Would Bill even be able to sleep through the rest of the night peacefully?

With a sigh Dipper moved Bill as gently as he could into a proper sleeping position. At first he had thought he’d been able to do it without waking him and was surprised when Bill gently pulled on his wrist as he was about to get up and leave.

“Pine Tree can you stay here tonight? You’re really warm,” he said sleepily.

“I uh don’t know,” Dipper wasn’t sure if he was comfortable with that.

“Please, just for tonight. I’m cold and I can't... I don't want to... I'm worried that I might...”

"Have another nightmare?" Dipper finished for him.

Bill nodded in response refusing to meet Dipper's eyes.

“All right, if that's the case then I guess I can,” Dipper said sitting back on the bed and lying down next to Bill.

Bill immediately cuddled right up next to him again, burying his face in Dipper’s night shirt. It was uncomfortable and part of him wanted to push him away, but Bill obviously needed and wanted his comfort right now, so he would deal with it.

Soon Bill’s breathing deepened again as he fell back asleep. And it wasn’t that long until Dipper found himself starting to relax too and soon fell asleep himself.


	13. Bedmates

The next day Dipper woke up slowly. He didn’t even want to open his eyes he was so comfortable. He could feel Bill’s warm body still pressed against his. Unlike last night Dipper didn’t think it was that bad, in fact he thought it was kind of nice.

Dipper knew he would eventually have to get up and start the day. But not right now, it was Sunday and he didn’t have anything to do today so he could afford to lay in bed for a little while. So he lay there for a while enjoying the warm hazy state between slumber and being fully awake.

But alas all good things must come to an end eventually. As Dipper woke up more and more he realized he was hungry and needed to go make breakfast. So with a sigh he gently disentangled himself from Bill.

“Don’t leave Pine Tree,” Bill said sleepily reaching out for him.

“Sorry, but I gotta get up and make breakfast.”

“But I’m cold now,” Bill complained.

Ignoring him this time Dipper left the room closing the door softly behind him. He made his way to the kitchen and popped some toast into the toaster and started up the coffee pot.

He regretted the loss of the bottle of cold medicine, he was starting to feel the effects of the cold even more than he had last night. But there was nothing he could do about for now so he’d just deal with it.

Shortly after Dipper had settled down on the couch with his breakfast of toast and coffee Bill stumbled out of the room. He had wrapped his yellow blanket around himself and looked like he was still half asleep.

“Hey Pine Tree,” he said after he’d grabbed his own cup of coffee and sunk down onto the couch next to Dipper.

“Hey Bill, you feeling any better?”

“Better than last night but still worse than yesterday,” Bill replied sounding miserable.

“Well if it makes you feel better I’m starting to get sick now too,” Dipper said.

“Good, that means I don’t have to suffer alone anymore,” Bill said grinning. “But uh do you have any more of that cold medicine?”

“Nope and I’m not going out to buy more either so don’t ask,” Dipper said guessing Bill might want to get high again.

“That’s a shame,” Bill said shivering as he pulled his blanket closer around himself.

After about an hour or so Bill moaned and asked, “Are you sure you don’t have anything that’ll make this awful feeling go away?”

“I don’t think so. You could try taking a hot shower I guess,” Dipper suggested.

“I don’t want to move though,” Bill complained. “You should keep me warm Pine Tree,” he said moving closer to Dipper and hugging his arm as he cuddled up next to him.

“Did I say you could do that?” Dipper said trying unsuccessfully to pull his arm away.

Bill gave him a pitiful look, “Please Pine Tree, you’re warm and sleeping next to you last night was really nice.”

“Ugh fine, but only ‘cause you’re sick and not feeling well, and only for a little while, I still need to work on my book sometime today,” Dipper said.

Bill’s only was response was to curl up next to him resting his head on Dipper’s shoulder while still hugging his arm. A few minutes later he was fast asleep.

With a sigh Dipper began flipping through channels looking for something entertaining to watch while he had to put up with being Bill’s pillow. He eventually settled on the Used to be About History Channel where a documentary about people trying to find aliens was on.

They sat there like that for a few hours. Once lunch time rolled around though Dipper figured he’d had enough. So he gently pulled his arm free of Bill’s grasp while trying to stand up without disturbing him. This time he actually succeeded.

As he walked to the kitchen he realized how dreadfully cold his arm and side felt now that Bill was no longer keeping him warm. But he would just have to deal with it as he tried to figure out what he should make for lunch. He eventually decided on making some soup since he wasn’t in the mood to make anything complicated.

When he’d finished he brought two bowls out to the living room so they could eat on the couch while watching T.V. When he got there Bill was already awake still looking like he needed more sleep.

“You left,” he said sounding betrayed as Dipper handed him one of the bowls of soup.

“Well I had to make lunch and I’m going to go work on my book after this, so you’re just going to have to deal with it,” Dipper said sitting back down on the couch.

They ate in silence except for the sound of the T.V. and once they’d finished Dipper took both bowls to the kitchen to wash them. He then started for his office.

“Hey Pine Tree can you give me my pillow?” Bill called from the living room before Dipper could close the door.

“Sure,” Dipper replied making his way back towards the bedroom. He grabbed Bill’s yellow pillow from his bed and went back into the living room and handed it to him.

“Hmm, thanks,” Bill mumbled as he put the pillow down on one side of the couch. He then grabbed the remote, lay down and began flipping through channels, probably looking for something horribly violent.

Dipper couldn’t remember if Bill had ever thanked him for anything before. “You’re uh welcome,” he said before heading back to his office. “Just knock if you need anything else.”

 

As Dipper wrapped up his writing for the day he decided he was going to go out of his way to try to finish it by next weekend. It would mean he would have to put in a bit extra time but he wanted to finish so that he could start editing soon.

As he was walking out of his office the front door opened and Mabel walked in calling her usual cheery greeting.

“Hey Shooting Star,” Bill said still lying on the couch, “Are you sick too?”

“No, but Candy is, so I’ll probably catch it too,” she responded grumpily crossing her arms but she immediately perked back up as she said, “Anyway Dipper I have some amazing news, you wanna guess what it is?”

“Uh, probably something to do with a cute guy right?” Dipper guessed based off what Mabel’s usual ‘amazing news’ was about.

“Kind of yes. Marius finally proposed to Grenda. Isn’t that exciting?!” she said almost jumping up and down with excitement.

“Are we invited to their wedding?” Bill asked.

“Of course, and me and Candy are going to be her bridesmaids. Isn’t that amazing Dipper?”

“Yeah, I guess. Do you know when they’re planning on having their wedding?” Dipper said.

“No, but they said they want to have it as soon as possible. They’ve already hired a wedding planner and they said it should be in like a month or two hopefully,” Mabel replied still sounding very excited. “Oh but this mean’s Grenda’s going to moving out now too and it’ll be just me and Candy,” her excitement died a little at this realization.

“Is there going to be cake at this wedding?” Bill asked.

“Yeah, there’s always cake at weddings. And since Marius is rich so it’ll probably be good cake,” Mabel answered perking up once more.

Dipper wasn’t entirely sure he would trust Bill to behave during a wedding. But it was still a ways away so maybe he could convince Bill not to go, though he doubted it. There was also be the possibility the Bill wouldn’t even be invited, but if that were the case he would probably insist on going anyway.

They spent the rest of the evening hanging out and doing their usual thing. Mabel kept bringing up how excited she was for Grenda and Marius’ wedding, she even pulled Bill into her excitement a little.

“Hmmm, Pine Tree, it’s been a while since I attended a wedding, I haven’t really had a reason to spy on one in long time. What kind of things happen in a modern wedding? I assume they kept the part where everyone parties and gets drunk afterward,” Bill said once Mabel had left.

“Yeah, sort of, but like the wedding itself isn’t going to be very exciting or anything. So you might not really want to go,” Dipper warned him.

“No, I wanna go, I’m sure it’ll be fun,” Bill replied.

         

That night just as Dipper was about to gratefully about to collapse into his bed Bill said, “Hey Pine Tree, you should sleep in my bed again tonight.”

“And why would I do that?” Dipper sighed, he wasn’t really sure if he wanted to do that. On one hand it hadn’t been so bad sleeping next to Bill last night, on the other it was kind of weird sharing a bed with a friend.

“Because it’s really nice sleeping next to you,” Bill paused for a few seconds before continuing in a softer voice, “And like you know, you’re good a distraction from my uh… dreams and stuff.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, what are your nightmares about?” Dipper asked not expecting an answer.

But to his great surprise after some hesitation Bill replied with, “They’re about what the necromancer did to me when he was… ‘studying’ me. And yeah I know you want to know what happened, and I might tell you one day, but not right now.”

Dipper could hardly believe his ears. Had Bill really just said he might one day finally satisfy his curiosity about the necromancer?

“Would you really tell me that? Like I thought you said you never wanted to talk about it,” he said.

“Yeah well, for a lot of you humans, telling someone you trust about something that’s bothering you makes you feel better about it, even if that person can’t actually do anything to make it better. Maybe that might work for me too. So like yeah, one day, maybe when I drunk or high again, I might tell you about it.”

“Wait does that mean you trust me?”

“Yes, now shut up and come over here already,” Bill said impatiently gesturing him to lay on the bed with him.

Amazed that Bill had admitted to trusting him Dipper went over and lay on the bed next to him. Bill of course immediately cuddled up next to him, resting his head on his chest and hugging him like a pillow. Dipper obligingly hugged him back despite still being distracted with thoughts of what Bill had just said.

 

Over the next week both Bill and Dipper suffered through their colds and Mabel somehow miraculously never caught it despite spending time with them. Bill complained about it almost every day, even though he clearly felt much better once he had gotten over the cold medicine hangover.

They also started a habit of sleeping in Bill's bed together. As a result Bill stopped having nightmares, meaning Dipper was basically doomed to sleep next to him for forever. But he actually didn't mind, it had taken him a couple nights to get used to it but he soon found himself enjoying it. Just as long as no one ever found out, it would be fine.

That Saturday Dipper decided instead going down to the Mystery Shack he would stay home and finish his book. He had gotten a lot of work done on it over the week despite being ill and it would probably take a good portion of the day to finish it but he knew he could do it. He started early in the morning right after he’d eaten breakfast and finally finished just past noon.

After typing ‘The End’ at the bottom of the page he stood up and stretched. He felt mentally and physically exhausted but also amazing at the same time. Nothing could quite compare to the feeling of finishing something after working on it so long.

He doubled checked to make sure the computer had saved before turning it off and heading out into the living room.

“Oh hey Pine Tree, I thought you were at the Mystery Shack today,” Bill said from his spot on the couch where he was playing video games.

“Nah, I stayed home today so I could finish my book,” Dipper explained.

“Ooh, really, can I read it?” Bill asked pausing his game to look up at Dipper.

“I…I don’t know, I still need to edit it and stuff,” Dipper was still uncomfortable with the thought of Bill reading his stuff in general especially if it was unedited.

“Oh come on, you know I’m just going to read it eventually anyway right? I’ve already figured out the password to your computer and while you’re at college there’s nothing you can do to stop me from looking at it,” Bill said smiling mischievously.

“You have?” Dipper knew his password wasn’t the best but he hadn’t thought anyone would be able to guess it that easily.

“Yeah, it’s the date of the day you first found the journal,” Bill replied. “So are you going to let me read it now or do I have to wait ‘till Monday?”

“How’d you even figure that out?”

“Easy Pine Tree, that’s a very important date to you and since no one else knows it, it would be hard for a random person to guess.”

“Ugh fine, I guess you can go ahead and read it. You already know the password so go knock yourself out,” Dipper conceded.

Bill didn’t waste any time getting up from the couch and heading into Dipper’s office, closing the door behind him. With a sigh Dipper headed into the kitchen to make himself some lunch.

A couple hours later Bill came back out with a satisfied smile on his face.

“That was fast,” Dipper said. “So what did you uh…think about it?”

“Hmm, I liked it. Especially the part near the end there where you made my character seem less evil,” he replied as he sat on the couch next to Dipper.

“Really? I was unsure about that part. I thought it might not fit with the story but I did heavily base that character off of you and like…you’re not really evil and I felt kinda felt bad about portraying you like that. And like you’re still the villain of the story but I guess this makes you less stereotypical or whatever,” Dipper stopped himself before he could ramble on anymore.

“So when are you going to get it published?” Bill asked.

“Well first I have to edit it and then I’ll let Mable and some other people read it and then I have to edit it some more based off their feedback. And then I have to send it to my agent and stuff before it can published,” Dipper explained.

“I guess that means it’ll be a while. But now that you’ve finished it let’s celebrate,” Bill said smiling.

“Uh, sure but how?”

“Play video games with me,” Bill said already standing up to turn the console on.

“That’s hardly anything special, we do that all the time,” Dipper said.

“Yeah, but not lately. You’ve been too busy working on your book and it’s been oh so dreadfully boring without you,” Bill complained as he hooked up two controllers to the game console.

That was true, Dipper had been kind of neglecting Bill while he was trying to finish his book. But he was done with it now so they could spend more time together again.

“All right, I guess let’s celebrate by playing video games or whatever,” Dipper said taking the controller Bill was offering him.


	14. Wedding Invitations

The following week both Dipper and Bill got formal invites to Grenda and Marius’ wedding. They came in fancy envelopes and set the date in almost exactly a month, a few days after the college semester ends. Dipper thought that was quite fast but Marius was rich and could no doubt afford the cost of making things happen quicker.

“Ooh Pine Tree, we’re going right?” Bill said after they’d read over the invitations.

“Are you sure you want to go? It’s going to be awfully boring and there’s not going to be a whole lot to do,” Dipper warned him.

“Yeah, but they’ll have cake and an after party, right?” Bill replied.

“Yes, but before that you’re gonna have to sit quietly for at least a couple hours during the ceremony. That means no complaining about being bored. Do you think you can handle that?”

“Pine Tree I’m not a child, I can sit quietly for hours without complaining. And a little bit of boredom is worth some cake. Besides I haven’t seen a wedding in a long time and I’m curious to find out what modern weddings are like.”

Dipper didn’t believe for a minute that Bill wouldn’t complain during the ceremony. But there seemed to be nothing he could do to dissuade Bill from wanting to go, so he’d just have to try to find a way to get him to be silent.

“Okay fine, but you better behave,” Dipper said. “This means we’re going to have to get some nice clothes though, we’re probably going to have to ask Mabel where to go to get some.”

“When are we going to do that?” Bill asked.

“I don’t know, probably next week sometime, to get it out of the way before finals and stuff,” Dipper answered.

“Ah yeah, I forgot you’re finally going to be done with school soon,” Bill said. “That means I don’t have to sit around the house by myself every day anymore.”

 

When next week finally rolled around Mabel agreed to show them a store that sold nice clothes for weddings and other fancy events. She insisted on driving though and Dipper had to reluctantly hand over the keys to his car. Candy was coming along as well since her and Mabel where planning on buying their bridesmaid dresses there. Her and Dipper sat in the back since Bill refused to sit anywhere other than shotgun.

During the whole ride down there both Candy and Mabel excitedly talked about the upcoming wedding and what kind of dresses they wanted to wear. As soon as Mabel parked the car in front of the store they both ran inside. Dipper and Bill followed them in at a slower pace.

When they got in the girls had already run to the dress section of the store and were excitedly searching through all their options. Dipper and Bill made their way to the men’s section with all the fancy suits and ties.

“Here Pine Tree, this one’s yellow I need this one,” Bill said holding up a yellow suit jacket.

“I’m not surprised,” Dipper replied. “And I don’t really care either, the invitation didn’t say anything about needing to dress in a certain colour.”

“Good,” Bill said. “Now we need to find you one.”

After a couple more minutes of searching he stopped at another one and said, “Ah, here’s a blue one that would be perfect.”

“Why blue?” Dipper asked.

“Blue looks good on you,” Bill said pulling it out and holding it up against Dipper’s chest for a few seconds before giving a satisfied nod and handing it to Dipper.

Dipper figured it really didn’t matter all that much and decided to just go with what Bill had picked for him. He guessed blue must look good on him since Mabel had said the very same thing on a previous occasion when they had been shopping for prom outfits.

After picking out the rest of their fancy clothes they went to go wait for the girls to finish. Of course it took them a whole lot longer but they did eventually decide on what they wanted. They then went to the counter and paid using the special card Marius had given them for just that purpose.         

 

A few days later Dipper returned home from school to find Bill in the kitchen with the yellow suit jacket he had brought for the wedding laid out on the table in front of him underneath a sewing machine. It looked like he was sewing something onto the lower half of it but Dipper couldn’t tell what it was at this angel.

“Hey Bill, what are you doing?” he asked.

“I’m adding a pattern to this yellow jacket to make it look better,” Bill said as he paused the machine to turn and look at Dipper.

Dipper walked closer to see what Bill was sewing onto it. It now had neat black stitching on its lower half making a brick pattern reminiscent of how Bill’s original form looked. Based off of how far along it was Bill had to have been working on it for several hours now. In fact it looked like he had finished it except for the sleeves which he had apparently just started.

“Where’d you learn to sew? And also where did you get a sewing machine from in the first place?” Dipper asked.

“I borrowed the sewing machine from Shooting Star, I left her a note so she knows I have it. And I learned to sew from a seamstress I possessed a long time ago, this machine is way more high tech than the one she knew how to use but it still works basically the same,” Bill replied.

“Is there anything you don’t know how to do?” Dipper asked.

Bill shrugged in response, “I don’t know much about working high tech gadgets and stuff. I’ve never possessed anyone who knew how to use them.” Bill then returned to working the sewing machine.

It was kind of interesting to watch and Dipper found himself leaning forward a little to get a better look at Bill’s almost effeminate hands at work. He had never really noticed how nimble Bill’s hands looked until now and he found himself wondering what it might be like to hold or touch them.

Another thing he noticed was that Bill had pulled up the long sleeves he always wore, probably so they wouldn’t accidently get caught by the sewing machine. But this revealed the shackle scars on his wrists from when he’d been chained in the crypt. Dipper had never really gotten a good look at them before, Bill always had them covered up, and despite only being scars they were still depressing to look at. But they did remind him of Bill saying he might one day talk about the necromancer.

“Say, uh, Bill, you said you might one day tell me about the necromancer… are you uh, still planning on doing that?” he asked.

“Yeah, I’ll tell you,” Bill replied as he paused the sewing machine again, “but first I need to think of just how much I want to tell you. There are some… things I don’t want to admit to, but like if I didn’t talk about them you wouldn’t really understand what actually happened. And that’s why I want tell you, so that you’ll understand.”

“Really? You’ll for sure tell me about it then?”

“Yes, Pine Tree I’ll tell you about it, but not right now,” Bill sighed as he started the sewing machine again.

“Alright okay, I can wait for when you’re ready to tell me,” Dipper said suppressing his excitement.

Deciding that staring at him while he worked would probably get awkward fast Dipper went into the living to watch some T.V. or play some video games. After a couple hours Bill came in too, holding the suit jacket he’d been working on.

“Hey Pine Tree, check it out,” he said proudly holding it up so Dipper could see. The black stitching making the brick pattern was neat and looked like it had always been there. It stopped at about half way up the coat including on the sleeves. “And on the back,” Bill said turning it around revealing that he had sewn a large eye near the top of it with a long thin pupil.

“It looks very nice,” Dipper said.

“You want me to do something with yours too? I could put neat little pine trees on it.”

“Nah, I’m probably only going to wear it the once, so it really wouldn’t be worth the effort,” Dipper replied, surprised that Bill had even offered.

“All right fair enough,” Bill shrugged.

Just then the front door opened and Mabel came in.

“Hey Bill, what did you need my sewing machine for?” she asked.

“This,” Bill said turning to show it to her too.

“Wow,” Mabel said as she ran her hands across the stitching, “this is really nice. Where’d you learn to do this?”

“I possessed a seamstress once,” Bill replied smiling proudly at her praise.

“Are you going to do something with Dipper’s clothes to?” she asked excitedly.

“I would but he said he doesn’t want me to,” Bill said.

“Ah Dipper that’s no fun,” Mabel complained.

“I’m only going to wear it to the wedding and then probably never again, so what would be the point?” Dipper reasoned.

“Because it would look cool,” Mabel said as if that was the only thing that mattered.

 

A couple weeks later, during the weekend before the last week of school Dipper sat down in the kitchen to study for the upcoming finals that would be taking place next week. He knew he could easily pass them without studying but he wanted to make sure he didn’t get a single question even partially wrong.

“What are you doing, Pine Tree?” Bill interrupted him a few hours later when he walked into the kitchen that morning and sat across from Dipper.

“Studying,” Dipper answered preoccupied.

“Why?”

“I need to make sure I get a hundred percent on my finals,” Dipper explained.

“But Pine Tree, when have you ever not aced a test? I mean other than that time that science teacher gave you a B because he didn’t like you,” Bill replied. “You don’t really _need_ to study, especially when you could be playing video games with me instead.”

“Sorry Bill, I would but I need to make sure I don’t forget anything that might be on the test. I’ll hang out with you later though, okay?”

“But I’m bored. And it’s Saturday, you’re not supposed to do school stuff on Saturdays,” Bill complained.

Dipper shrugged in response deciding to just ignore Bill until he gave up and went away.

But it wasn’t long before Bill got agitated over being ignored. “Pine Tree, pay attention to me,” he pleaded.

But Dipper refused to look up from his book, so after a little while Bill stood up and walked over to stand directly behind him. “Hey Pine Tree,” he whispered directly in Dipper’s ear.

It took an effort but Dipper continued to not pay any attention to him. He could feel Bill standing right behind him and it took all his willpower not to turn around and look at him.

“You can’t ignore me forever, Pine Tree,” Bill again whispered directly in his ear.

Dipper took a deep breath and continued to stare into the book on the table in front of him, even though he was way too distracted to actually read it.

“Hmmm okay, but remember you asked for this.”

Dipper wondered for a moment what Bill was about to do to him when he felt Bill’s hands slid up onto his sides and started tickling him.

“Bill stop!” Dipper exclaimed laughing as he tried unsuccessfully to wiggle away. But Bill didn’t stop, in fact if anything he started tickling Dipper even harder.

After several seconds of this Dipper couldn’t take anymore. “Alright, alright, you win,” Dipper panted out of breath as Bill finally stopped. “I’ll hang out with you, I can study later.”

“See I told you, you couldn’t ignore me forever,” Bill grinned victoriously as he dragged Dipper into the living room.


	15. The Wedding

After the last day of school Dipper returned home to find that Bill was in the kitchen personalizing another one of his shirts. He had done this to almost every shirt he owned by now. They all now had some variant of the brick pattern sewn on the bottom half with a giant eye sewn on the chest. He had always done this while Dipper was away at school, and as a result Dipper had never caught him at it again until now.

“Why do you do that?” he asked.

“Do what?” Bill asked looking up at Dipper as he paused the sewing machine.

“You know, make all your shirts look like that?” Dipper walked over to get a better look. He wasn’t really surprised to find that Bill was just straight up sewing a picture of himself on this one.

“For fun and because it looks cool,” Bill shrugged. “Also it’s something to do while I wait for you to come home from school. But now you’re done with school right? That means I don’t spend the all day by myself anymore.”

“Unless I decide to get a job for the summer.”

“You can’t do that to me Pine Tree,” Bill complained. “It’s so lonely and boring when you’re not here. And I’ve been looking forward to finally having you around to entertain me again. So don't get a job, just publish your book instead.”

“Don’t worry, if I do get a job it’ll probably be one I can do at home,” Dipper assured him.

“Good, but is there anything you want me to sew onto any of your clothes? Shooting Star said I could borrow her sewing supplies for as long as I want.”

“Nah,” Dipper replied.

“Hmmm, all right then,” Bill said before bending over the sewing machine again.

With a sigh Dipper left the kitchen to let Bill finish his sewing job.

 

A few days later was finally the day of Grenda and Marius’ wedding. After they had gotten dressed in the clothes they had bought for the wedding, they both stepped out into the living room.

Bill looked snazzy in his modified clothing and Dipper couldn’t help but admire how handsome he looked.

“Pine Tree have you never tied a tie before?” Bill asked pulling Dipper out of his thoughts.

“Well yeah, once for prom,” Dipper had tied that one wrong and Mabel had had to fix it for him. He had thought he had gotten it right this time but apparently not.

“Just let me do it,” Bill said before Dipper could try to fix it.

As Bill stepped right up next to him and began fixing his tie Dipper realized he was a full head taller than Bill. They had never stood this close before so Dipper had never really noticed this until now. And now that he was aware of how close they were standing he couldn’t get his mind off it. If he really wanted to he could easily reach out and touch Bill. Why he would want to do that he didn’t know, but he could if he wanted to.

“There, that’s much better,” Bill said stepping back at last. “Now that you don’t look like a complete moron let’s go.”

With a sigh Dipper grabbed his car keys and followed Bill out the door to the car. First he had to pick up Mabel and Candy, they had all agreed that it would be much easier that way. Of course they looked stunning in their bridesmaid dresses and were super excited for their friend’s wedding. And as is their usual fashion they talked all about it during the whole drive down to the church.

Upon arriving the church was already crowded with wedding guests despite the fact that Dipper had set out to arrive early. After finally finding a place to park they all piled out of the car and made their way to the church’s entrance.

Inside the church was almost overwhelming in the amount of decorations that were everywhere. There were beautiful flamboyant flowers on every pew and a beautifully embroidered carpet in the aisle between the pews.

“Hey Dip, we’re going to go help Grenda get ready for the ceremony. So like we’ll see you later,” Mabel said before her and Candy ran off to the back somewhere, leaving Dipper and Bill to find their own way around.

“This is certainly flashier than I expected,” Bill said.

“Marius is filthy rich so I’m not really surprised. The reception’s probably going to be even worse,” Dipper replied.

“So what do we do now?” Bill asked.

“We sit and wait for the ceremony to start,” Dipper said leading him to one of the pews in the back.

“What? That’s no fun. How long is that going to take?”

“Probably about an hour or so, but remember you promised you wouldn’t complain, and I expect you to keep that that promise,” Dipper told him.

“Why couldn’t we have skipped this part and only gone to the after party?” Bill of course was not going to keep his promise.

“Because Grenda’s sort of a friend of mine and it would be rude to go to the reception without attending the actual wedding. Besides you’re the one who wanted to come, I told you it was going to be boring but you insisted on coming anyway. So you have no one to blame but yourself.”

“Fine, I can be patient,” Bill said.

But it wasn’t even ten minutes before he was fidgeting again. “I’m bored Pine Tree, you should give me something to do.”

“I don’t know, take a nap or something.”

“Hmmm, okay I think will. Wake me up when there’s finally something interesting happening.” Bill then very purposefully cuddled up against Dipper’s side.

“Really Bill, do you have to?”

“I’m bored Pine Tree, so unless you want me to find some other way to pass the time…”

“Fine whatever, you can stay, if it means you’ll be quiet,” Dipper conceded as he put his arm around Bill allowing him to get more comfortable against his side. It wasn’t too terribly long later before Bill was asleep. Dipper had no idea how he was able to fall asleep just like that and didn’t really care either. As long as he wasn’t complaining anymore it was fine.

Over the next hour more guests slowly filed in, taking their places in the fancily decorated pews. Some of them shot Dipper and Bill some strange looks, probably because as time went on Bill went from just leaning on Dipper to wrapping his arms around him and hugging him like a pillow. Dipper's attempts to stop him from doing so all failed, and he eventually just had to accept his fate or wake Bill up, which would no doubt just cause him to complain some more.

But finally at last it was time for the ceremony to start. The crowd hushed as everyone began taking their places and the organ player started playing. Dipper briefly considered waking Bill up for this but he probably didn’t really care to see the ceremony so it was best to just let him sleep some more.

Grenda of course looked beautiful in her white wedding dress, or at least as beautiful as a large muscular woman like herself could look. As she walked down the aisle two young flowers girls in frilly dresses spread flower petals behind her.

Dipper was close enough to the edge of the pew to hear their whispered conversion as they passed by.

“Look at those two guys over there,” one of them pointed to Dipper and Bill giggling, “I bet they’re in love too.”

“I wonder if they’re going to get married next. Maybe they’ll let us be the flower girls for them to,” her friend replied happily.

Dipper couldn’t help but blush a little at the girls’ comments. It probably did look like he and Bill were more than just friends, Bill was kind of hugging him after all. This thought made him want to move so that no one else would make that mistake but he resisted the urge because he was comfortable and it was probably already too late. Besides he didn’t want to wake up Bill yet because he would no doubt just complain about being bored again.

Up at the alter Marius had to stand on a small stool so that he could be more on level with his very tall soon to be wife. It was kind of ridiculous how much taller and more muscular she was than him. But he didn’t seem to care about any of that.

As the priest slowly droned on, reading the typical wedding vows Dipper soon found himself nodding off. Bill warmth against his side and the priest’s monotonous voice soon had him having trouble keeping his eyes open. He tried to stay awake to watch the whole thing, he really did. But he couldn’t fight the pull of sleep for very long.

He was woken up some time later by Mabel and Candy having a whispered conversation a few feet away.

“Aww, they're so cute, I almost don’t want to wake them,” Mabel said in a whisper.

“Yeah, I’m going to post these pictures online for everyone to see,” Candy replied.

“What do you want Mabel?” Dipper groaned as he lifted his head to see both girls pointing their smart phones at him and Bill, who was still sleeping.

“Good morning sleepyhead, you guys slept through the entire ceremony and now it’s time for the reception,” Mabel cheerily informed him as she pocketed her phone.

Looking around Dipper saw it was true, almost all the guests had left by now.

“And you and your boyfriend look so cute together we just had to take pictures,” Candy said holding up her smart phone and snapping another photo of them.

“He’s not my boyfriend,” Dipper replied annoyed that everyone on social media would now think that.

“If he’s not your boyfriend then why are you cuddling like that?” Candy asked as she finally put down her phone.

“We’re not cuddling,” Dipper protested, “he’s just sleeping against me because otherwise he would’ve complained about being bored for the whole ceremony.”

“Whatever you say Dipper, whatever you say,” Mabel said as if she knew something he didn’t. “Anyway we let you sleep as long as we could but it’s time to go to the reception. So wake up your not boyfriend and let’s go.”

“Ugh fine. Wake up Bill, it’s time for the after party you were so excited about,” Dipper said as he pushed against Bill’s shoulder.

Of course Bill being deep in the recesses of sleep didn’t respond. So Dipper tried to push him off completely, but Bill tightened his embrace, pressing his face into Dipper’s shoulder.

“Come on Bill it’s time to wake up,” Mabel said loudly as she poked him in the side.

“Go ‘way,” Bill groaned trying to push her hand away.

“Bill it’s time to get up,” Dipper said.

“Ugh fine, I’m up, I’m up,” Bill said lifting his face off Dipper’s shoulder.

“Yeah, now if you would please stop hugging me, that would be great,” Dipper said.

With a resigned sigh Bill finally pulled away. “Where’d everybody go?” he asked looking around the now mostly empty church.

“To the reception, which is where we should be going now too,” Mabel said.

“Hmmm, all right let’s go then,” Bill said standing up and leading the way back to the car.


	16. Dancing

It turned out that the reception was even more fancy and decorative than the church had been. When they arrived Mabel immediately led them to where Grenda and Marius were standing together in the entrance greeting everyone who came in.

“Congratulations Grenda, Marius, I’m so happy for you,” she said as she and Candy gave Grenda a brief hug.

“Oh, Mabel, Candy isn’t this amazing. Everything’s so beautiful and nice. I think I’m like the happiest girl in the whole world right now,” Grenda said cheerily. “And Dipper it’s good to see you too,” she continued as she shook his hand in her strong, almost painful grip. “Even if you and your boyfriend slept through the ceremony I’m still glad you came.”

“Oh yeah sorry about that,” Dipper said guiltily. “But uh, he’s not my boyfriend, we’re just friends.”

“Dipper there’s no need to be ashamed about it. No one here is going to prosecute you two for being gay,” Marius said.

“Yeah, but really we’re not like that he’s _just_ a friend, I swear. Right Bill?” Dipper said looking around to see that Bill had apparently abandoned him to no doubt find something more ‘exciting’ to do. Of course he would abandoned him at a time like this.

“Oh Dipper you can deny it all you want, but you and him are obviously more than just friends,” Candy said smiling.

Thankfully another group of guests came in right then and as Grenda and Marius turned to greet them Dipper took his chance and silently leave as well.

He immediately set out to find where Bill had run off to. He eventually found him at the food table dipping every type of food available into the chocolate fondue fountain in the center.

“Hey Bill, what’s up?” he asked.

“Hey Pine Tree, you have to try this. This chocolate stuff is amazing, and it makes everything else taste amazing too,” he said.

With a sigh Dipper tried it and found that yes, it was amazing.

“This is a lot more fun than that stuff at the church was. But when are we going to eat the cake?” Bill said.

“I don’t know, I don’t think that happens until sometime towards the end,” Dipper replied.

After about half an hour later all the guests seemed to have arrived as Grenda and Marius announced it was time to officially start the party. The band started playing as they started the first dance of the evening. Dipper and everyone else watched as they slowly twirled around the dance floor.

“That’s the same kind of dance everyone was doing at your prom,” Bill commented quietly to Dipper.

“You were watching me at prom?” Dipper asked.

“Yeah, I thought it was funny when your date stood you up and you got all depressed about it.”

“I guess I really shouldn’t be surprised about that. But uh… how often did you spy on me anyway?” Dipper asked.

“Almost all the time, I pretty much watched everything you did ever since you stood up to me in your uncle’s mindscape. Of course that all stopped when the necromancer trapped me and stuff,” Bill sighed.

“I guess that means you know pretty much all of dirty secrets then huh?”

“Yep, I know all about that tentacle porn fetish you had when you were a teenager,” Bill said grinning.

“Hush, don’t say that so loudly please,” Dipper pleaded glancing around to make sure no one had heard that.

“Don’t worry about it Pine Tree, lots of people like tentacles. In fact the lovely bride over likes to write tentacle porn in her free time.”

“Wait really, Grenda writes stuff like that?” Dipper asked astonished.

“Yeah, like all the time and she uploaded it on the internet too. Even though she may have stopped, I obviously haven’t been able to watch anyone for more than a year now so I wouldn’t know if she still does it,” Bill said with a depressed sigh.

Just then the first song ended and the next began meaning everyone else could join in on the dancing if they and their partner so wished. So everyone either went onto the dance floor or back to the food table.

Dipper was about to do the latter when Bill grabbed his wrist. “Come on Pine Tree, let’s go dance,” he said grinning as he pulled Dipper onto the dance floor.

“What no!” Dipper exclaimed trying to pull back.

“Why not? It’ll be fun,” Bill said pulling on his wrist again.

“Everyone already thinks we’re like a couple or something, and this would only just confirm it to them.”

“Who cares what other people think, they can think whatever they want to think and it won’t affect us any. So come on, it’ll be fun,” Bill grabbed Dipper’s other wrist and pulled him closer.

Dipper reluctantly allowed Bill to position them into a proper slow dancing position. To his surprise though Bill put him into the lead position. So nervous and blushing Dipper started them swaying.

“See isn’t this fun Pine Tree?” Bill said after they got a rhythm going.

“Yeah, I guess so,” Dipper said glancing around to see if anyone was staring at them yet.

“Even though I do hate the fact that you’re taller than me,” Bill said with a slight frown.

“Yeah,” Dipper was expecting that at any moment someone would say something about what he and Bill were doing.

“Seriously Pine Tree just relax. Stop being so concerned about what other people think. Just focus on what we’re doing,” Bill chided him.

Taking a deep breath Dipper forced himself to focus less on everyone else and more and his dance partner. He soon found himself blushing again as he realized just how close he and Bill were to each other. Their bodies were pressed up against each other with very little room between them. And now that he was aware of this he couldn’t not think about it. Yeah, sure they kind of cuddled when they went to bed at night and sometimes they’d sit real close to each other on the couch, but this was different. They were out in public where people could see and they were dancing in a way that typically only people who were in romantic relationship danced.

After a little while though Dipper started to get used to it and even found himself starting to relax and enjoy it. He didn’t have much experience dancing like this so he wasn’t very good, but Bill didn’t seem to mind as he had clearly never danced like this before either. But despite all that it was kind of fun.

They danced like that for a while until Dipper suddenly heard Mabel say, “Aw, you guys are so cute together.”

Suddenly blushing again Dipper tried to pull away but Bill wasn’t about to let him go that easily and pulled him close again. “Hey Shooting Star, what’s up?” he said grinning.

“I was just wondering where you guys went and I didn’t expect to find you here like this,” Mabel said giggling.

“It’s not what it looks like,” Dipper stammered. “We were just dancing for fun, we’re not like you know… whatever it is you’re thinking.”

“I didn’t say I was thinking anything, I was just saying you guys look cute when you’re dancing like that,” Mabel smiled at them.

“Yeah Pine Tree, you’re the one who seems to want to make this awkward,” Bill said grinning as he finally released Dipper.

“I’m not… I don’t,” Dipper stammered. “Mabel what is it you wanted from us?”

“Oh, nothing really. I was just going to ask if one you guys wanted to dance with me. But I can see the both of you already have the perfect dance partner already,” Mabel winked at them.

Dipper couldn’t help but blush in response. Mabel would now no doubt think something was happening here when it really wasn’t. There wasn't actually anything happening here, right? Him and Bill were  _just_ friends. Them dancing like that and enjoying it didn’t _really_ mean anything, did it?

“Anyway I’ll let you guys get back to what you were doing, I’ll find some other cute boy to dance with me,” Mabel said before happily skipping off.

“You wanna dance some more? Or do you want to go do something else now?” Bill asked once she was gone.

Dipper thought for a moment before saying, “We can dance some more I guess.” He gently pulled Bill close again and started them slow dancing once more. He had been having fun until Mabel had interrupted them and he wanted to continue. He decided he didn’t care what other people thought or what it might mean. He just knew he liked holding Bill close.

“Hmmm, this is nice Pine Tree,” Bill said after a while. “I could get used to this.”

“Yeah, this is fun,” Dipper replied still kind of surprised that it was true.

After a short pause Bill almost whispered, “You still want me to tell you about the necromancer?”

Dipper was bit taken aback by Bill being the one to bring that up, “Yeah of course, but you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

“I think I want to. I’ll tell you about it tonight, before we go to bed,” Bill said.

“Really?” Dipper asked trying to hide his excitement.

“Yeah really, as long as you promise you won’t tell anyone else.”

“Of course I won’t tell anyone,” Dipper promised.

“Good, now let’s not talk about that anymore,” Bill said.

They spent all most the rest of the entire evening dancing with the occasional break to eat at the food table or to drink at the open bar. Dipper enjoyed it a lot more than he had initially thought he would. Bill had proven to be a fairly decent dance partner after they had both gotten the hang of it, and surprisingly Bill always let Dipper lead.

But finally it was time for the reception to end. After Grenda and Marius had cut the cake and everyone had a slice or two they gave a brief speech thanking everyone for coming and wrapped everything up.

After congratulating Grenda and Marius one last time Mabel and Candy met up with Dipper and Bill in the parking lot.

“I saw you guys dancing and you were like super adorable,” Candy said as they all climbed into Dipper’s car.

“We weren’t… adorable, we were just… having fun,” Dipper said starting the car.

“You weren’t the only adorable couple there, but you were one of the cutest,” Candy said.

“We are _not_ a couple,” Dipper protested.

“But you guys can't deny that you're cute together,” Mabel said.

“Bill tell them we’re not like that,” Dipper said.

“Oh, but Pine Tree…” Bill began with a mischievous grin.

“No Bill, don’t even go there. We’re not like that and you know it,” Dipper cut him off before he could cause trouble.

“Okay fine, Pine Tree and I aren’t like that. We’re good friends who just happen to enjoy dancing together.”

“I still think you guys are super cute together though,” Candy said.

“Yeah, me too,” Mabel heartily agreed.

“Well you guys can think whatever you want to think, it’s still not true,” Dipper was glad they couldn’t see that he was blushing, but Bill could and seemed rather amused by it.

Why did they have to insist that he and Bill were a cute couple? They weren’t like that. He didn’t like Bill like that, did he? No surely not, they were just really close friends, that’s all. There was nothing strange or unusual about two friends slow dancing together, or cuddling together at night. Okay, maybe that last one was a bit odd, but they only did that so Bill wouldn't have nightmares. No him and Bill were just good friends. And Dipper was perfectly all right with that, wasn't he?


	17. Answers

Later that night about an hour before they normally went to bed Dipper and Bill sat on the couch next to each other. Bill had grabbed a piece of blank paper and a pen as well as something to write on, saying there were things he wanted to show as well as tell.

“Okay first of all Pine Tree, you have to promise me that after this you’ll never bring it up again and that you’ll never tell anyone else, not even Shooting Star,” Bill said.

“Yeah, I won’t tell anyone or remind you of it unnecessarily,” Dipper promised, trying to hide his excitement about finally having some questions answered.

“All right, I guess I’ll start with when he summoned me,” Bill began. “As you know I can be multiple places at once and I was. I wasn’t really focusing on any one thing, so I was like in a lot places. It was back when you and Shooting Star stilled lived in the Shack, you had just started your book and you hadn’t even decided to put me in it yet.”

“How’d you even find my house then?” Dipper asked.

“You’re car, I recognized it. It’s the one Sixer gave you when he bought a new one for himself,” Bill answered. “I was really confused about it at first, I hadn’t even known I was still in Gravity Falls for all that time. Initially I wasn’t planning on asking anyone for help, but then I saw your car, and I was so cold and desperate, and the thought of seeing a familiar face was too tempting.”

“Anyway,” he continued after a short pause, “when he summoned me I was suddenly all in one place all at once. It was really jarring, I had never been pulled like that before. You see normally when I’m summoned it’s more of just an awareness that somebody’s calling me and then I can choose to appear to them or not, but he forced me to come to him. This body was already on the ground when he summoned me, I couldn’t hear thoughts from it so I assumed it was dead and didn’t pay much attention to it, but I do know that it already had some of these runes on it.”

Bill briefly gestured to his chest before continuing, “I challenged him, but he ignored me and just continued flipping through his rune book. You know the one I told you about, the one that he was always referring to for spells or writing, I presume stuff about me in. He used that book to trap me so I think it could be used to free me, but we’re never going to find it. Anyway using a spell he had found the book he started drawing some of those runes in the air using his weird magic. I was still disoriented form being summoned, so I didn’t catch what they were at the time. But I do know that they made it so that I couldn’t leave. I could’ve broken that spell eventually I think, but he didn’t give me any time to try before he started drawing more runes. These ones I do remember, they looked like this.”

Bill drew on the sheet of paper a string of runes similar to the ones on his chest.

“This spell or whatever it is, is what trapped you in that body, right?” Dipper asked as he noticed that some of the runes were the exact same as some the ones on Bill’s chest.

“Yeah,” Bill nodded, “It felt extremely unpleasant and I tried to teleport away but couldn’t because of that spell he had cast earlier. After he had completely trapped me in this body rendering me powerless he chained me to the wall and left, ignoring all my death threats. He didn’t come back for a _long_ while, not until after I had completely exhausted myself struggling against the chain. When he did, he said that he was my master now and I was nothing but a test subject and that he was going to perform experiments on me until I died. Of course I didn’t take well to this and started cursing him out in every language imaginable. All he did was laugh… all he ever did was laugh.”

After a short pause to get his anger under control Bill continued, “Every time he would go down there, he’d unchain me from the wall and I would try to run but he always easily stopped me. He’d then drag me over to the circle and seal it with this rune,” Bill drew another rune on the paper.

“I thought you didn’t want me knowing what that rune looks like,” Dipper pointed out.

“I don’t care anymore, I now know you’re not going to try to use it against me,” Bill shrugged. “Anyway he’d seal the circle and then he’d pull me partially out of this body with this set of runes,” Bill drew a few more runes on the page. “I was still tethered to it though so I was virtually powerless and nothing I tried got anywhere close to breaking the circle. He’d then start testing how I reacted to all sorts of different spells and runes. He said he was trying to find the best way to defeat beings from my dimension. And by ‘best’ I think he meant the most painful way possible.”

“I thought you liked pain,” Dipper said confused.

“I do, physical pain that is. But this wasn’t that. I can’t… describe it, not really. I didn’t even know that kind of feeling was possible until he did it to me. It was _horrible_ and the worst part was I couldn’t do anything to defend myself from it.”

Bill shivered and Dipper scooted a little closer and put an arm around him. “You don’t have to tell me any more if you don’t want to,” he said.

“No, I’ve already started so I might as well tell you the rest,” Bill took a deep breath as he leaned against Dipper. “Besides I feel like I need you to understand what happened to me. Anyway like I said he wanted to find a way to defeat beings from my dimension. He would taunt me by saying everything he was learning from torturing me would eventually lead to him destroying everyone and everything in my dimension. And for all I know he could’ve already done that by now and everyone from my dimension that I’ve known for literal millennia could be nonexistent by now. I wouldn’t say any of them were really my friends, but still…”

“So like, everyone you know could be dead right now and you have no way of knowing for sure?” Dipper couldn’t even begin to imagine what that must be like.

“Yeah, or the necromancer could be torturing them. I was the most powerful being from my dimension, so if the necromancer could do it to me he could do it to anyone from my dimension. Unless they all gained up on him… maybe, but they’re not really likely to do that,” Bill answered.

“Why not? If the necromancer was hunting them down wouldn’t they want to defend themselves?” Dipper asked.

“Yeah, but they wouldn’t want to work together. They would all probably think that it either couldn’t or wouldn’t happen to them, and if it did they would think they could handle it by themselves. If I was there I could probably get some of them to work together. But I’m not there and there’s a very real possibility that I never will be again,” Bill said with a depressed sigh.

“What are the other beings from your dimension like anyway?” Dipper asked.

“They’re like how I used to be, except more snooty, boring and antisocial. Obviously they can all change shape like I could, so they look like whatever they want to look like, and they have pretty much the same powers I did but they’re weaker than I used to be. None of them really liked me because of my dealings with ‘inferior’ life forms like you humans. But they would listen to me sometimes because I could’ve easily killed any one of them.”

“Is it possible that they know what happened to you and might try to find a way help you or something?” Dipper asked.

“It’s highly unlikely that they know, and if they did they wouldn’t care and some of them would probably try to destroy me. Most of them never leave home, and the ones that do would never visit this dimension in a million years. So assuming the necromancer doesn’t kill them, they’ll never know what happened to me,” Bill shrugged.

“Wow, that’s really… kind of sad,” Dipper said.

“It’s not a big deal, I don’t really like any of them anyway. Even though I still would really rather not see them be destroyed,” Bill sighed. “Anyway, despite his main goal being to destroy my dimension, he still went out of his way to cause me as much suffering as possible. He liked seeing me in pain, and there was even a spell he put together just to see how long I could endure before I would beg him for mercy. It looked like… like this,” Bill’s hand shook as he drew another series of runes on the paper.

“He made this spell specifically to torture you?” Dipper couldn’t believe anyone would be so cruel as to do something like that. He could feel Bill tense and shaking as he looked down at the runes he had just drawn.

“Yeah, and it was very effective too, and he liked using it on me a _lot_ ,” Bill said as he flipped the paper around so he wouldn’t have to look at it anymore. “The first time he used it on me, I think I lasted for at least a day. I’m not really sure, my sense of time down there wasn’t very good at the best of times, but I do know it was the longest. He always made me beg and plead and call him ‘Master’ before he would finally stop. It _hurt_ Pine Tree, more than anything you can ever imagine. Like… like I can’t even begin to describe to you what it was like. It was the most horrible awful thing I’ve ever experienced. And the worst part was he’d always laugh at me when I finally broke and begged him to make it stop. I would try to keep silent and endure it but I never could, I always failed… but I just wanted the pain to stop, I wanted that awful feeling to go away. Does that make me a coward Pine Tree? I always gave him exactly what he wanted, does that make me weak?”

“No, of course not,” Dipper said as he wrapped Bill in a hug. At first Bill resisted and Dipper was worried he would try to push him away but after a while he relaxed into it. “I’m… I’m so sorry Bill, I had no idea that anything like that had happened to you.”

He held Bill like that for at least a full minute before letting go so Bill could continue his story. But he did still keep one arm around him and Bill was still leaning against him.

Bill continued, “There were other runes and spells he used, some of them didn’t do anything thankfully. But any time he found one that caused me pain or discomfit, he’d use it for a while so he could watch me squirm. Some of his favourites were these.”

Bill still tense against Dipper’s side drew multiple strings of runes on the paper. As he watched Bill draw them Dipper couldn’t help but feel bad that he used to bother Bill about this. He had known it probably wasn’t very pleasant what had happened, but he hadn’t expected it to be _this_ bad. No wonder Bill had had nightmares about it.

“There were some more, but I think you get the idea,” Bill said after he’d covered almost the whole page in runes. “After he was finally done with me for the day he’d put me back fully into this body and chain me to the wall again, so that I couldn’t escape. He’d then leave me in the pitch darkness for however long he felt like. Before he’d leave he’d always make sure to blow out all the candles he had lit. It was dark down there Pine Tree, darker than anything you can imagine. But the darkness was preferable to when he would eventually come back and start all over again. Every time he was gone I would tug at the chain to try to pull it through the wall, he always put the keys right out of my reach to taunt me. I would always tug at it until I passed out but eventually I stopped believing it would work. I only kept doing it because I didn’t want to sit in silence with only my self-pity. So I was more than a little surprised and amazed when after the necromancer had been gone for a while I felt it break through the wall and I was finally free. Or at least free from the wall. Most of the time he left his rune book done there to taunt me with how close potential freedom was, but for some reason he didn’t do that that night. So unfortunately I couldn’t steal it before leaving. And now you know pretty much everything I know about the necromancer. Are you happy that your curiosity’s finally been satisfied Pine Tree?”

“I didn’t expect it to be _that_ bad,” Dipper said.

After a few seconds of silence Bill spoke again, “How could this have happened to me Pine Tree? How could I have been so easily and completely defeated? I’ve always believed for as long as I’ve existed that I was one of the most powerful forces in the universe. I never had any doubt whatsoever that I was immortal, that nothing could ever hurt me. But now I know that that was all just a delusion, even after all this time I can’t break a spell a mere human has cast on me. How could I not have known about this horrible rune magic? I could go anywhere and see anything, how did I miss this? I should’ve seen it coming and been able to stop it from happening,” Bill’s voice was full of despair and he was trembling against Dipper’s side.

“I’m sorry Bill,” Dipper didn’t know what else he could say as he pulled him into another hug. Bill was trembling and tense as he cuddled up against Dipper.

“Remember Pine Tree when you used to hate and fear me? I always thought it was funny how you and everyone else always feared me, sometimes people would be afraid of me even before I had done anything. But now I’m intimately aware of what it’s like to be afraid, and I hate it, it’s horrible.”

“I’m sorry, I wish there was something I could do to make you feel better,” Dipper said.

“Pine Tree you do make me feel better, at least a little bit anyway. You distract me from all these thoughts and you made those awful nightmares go away. And telling you all this has made me feel like I’ve taken a weight off my chest. It’s nice finally having someone who understands at least a little of what happened to me,” Bill’s voice dropped to almost a whisper during that last sentence.

Dipper was glad that he could make Bill feel a little better, but he still wished that there was something more he could do. He knew if he could free Bill he would do it without hesitation, even it meant Bill would leave him. Even if it meant he would never get to hold or even see Bill ever again.

“Let’s go cuddle in bed,” Bill said suddenly.

They reluctantly separated to get ready for bed. They of course as always cuddled up together on the same bed.

“Thank you for trusting me enough to tell me all that,” Dipper said as he pulled Bill close. “And… if you ever need to talk about that again, or anything else really I’ll uh… always be here for you.”

“Hmmm, thank you for that, Pine Tree,” Bill replied softly.


	18. Trust and Jealousy

The next day when they were hanging out on the couch together Bill was acting completely normal, as if nothing had changed. Dipper didn’t suppose that anything really had changed, but in light of what he now knew he felt like something should’ve.

Dipper guiltily remembered how he’d treated Bill all those months ago when he’d first moved in. How callously he’d dismissed the thought that what Bill had _just_ finished going through could really have been all that bad. How he’d been planning on betraying Bill. How he’d dragged him to the cemetery and shamed him into going into the crypt, the place where he’d been held captive and tortured for a year.

“I’m sorry Bill,” he said.

“About what?” Bill asked.

“About when you first moved in and I was kind of a jerk to you. About how I would bother you about what the necromancer did to you and stuff.”

“It’s fine Pine Tree, don’t worry about,” Bill shrugged. “Besides remember you said you wouldn’t bring it up anymore.”

“I know it’s just, I wanted to apologize about all that and when I made you come to the cemetery with me to get a picture of that circle… I can’t imagine how awful that must have been,” Dipper said.

“Oh that, I was really proud of myself when I was able to hide how freaked out I was down there. Of course it probably helped that you two were mostly looking at the circle and stuff, but still.”

“I’m _so_ sorry about that.”

“It’s fine Pine Tree, at the time you had no idea what had happened to me down there. So don’t let it bother you, okay?” Bill said. “And now let’s not talk about it anymore.”

“Okay,” Dipper replied. “But uh, how are able to act so normal all the time? Like you rarely act as if it bothers you at all.”

“Simple, I don’t ever think about it. I’ve become very good at pushing all the thoughts about what happened to me and what I used to be out of my head. But I will say that for the first few weeks I was only acting like I wasn’t thinking about it when you were around so that you wouldn’t guess what had happened to me,” Bill replied.

“Oh, I'm sorry about that too, but Bill I also feel like I need to tell you that… I was originally planning on betraying you,” Dipper ashamedly admitted.

“Yeah Pine Tree, I know,” Bill replied as if it didn’t matter.

“You do?”

“Of course, I’m not stupid you know. You still thought I wanted to take over the world back then, so it only makes sense that you were planning on betraying me. My guess is you only tolerated my presence because I know more about the necromancer than you and because the necromancer might have eventually shown up to finish me off.”

Dipper flinched at how accurate Bill’s guess was about his thought process all those months ago.

“I’m _really_ sorry about that,” Dipper apologized. “You know I won’t do anything like that now, right?”

“Well I can’t know for sure because I’ve lost my ability to read minds. But I don’t believe you’d do anything like that. I uh… trust you and I don’t think you’d do that to me,” Bill replied. “Ha weird, I don’t think I’ve ever said anything like that before. Heck, I’ve never even trusted anyone before period.”

“Really? You’ve never trusted anyone before?” Dipper asked a bit surprised.

“Nope, I’ve never been close enough to anyone before now to trust them. But I trust you, which is a new and exciting experience for me,” Bill said with a grin.

Wow, he was the first person Bill ever trusted. That made Dipper extremely happy for some reason.

“You trust Mabel too?” he asked curious to see how special he was to Bill.

“Yeah, but not nearly as much as you and not really in the same way either,” Bill replied cuddling up against Dipper’s side.

Dipper put an arm around him marveling at how far his relationship with Bill had come. He almost couldn’t believe that he used to hate Bill, especially now that Bill was the closest friend he’d ever had.

 

A few days later Dipper and Bill were sitting on the couch together, Bill was leaning against him and Dipper had his arm around his shoulders. He enjoyed sitting like this with Bill, but he made sure that Mabel never saw them doing it. But unfortunately that morning Mabel came over much earlier than she normally did.

“Hey guys, it’s time to go meet Pacifica at the airport,” she said.

“Wait, she comes back today?” Dipper asked quickly putting a small amount of space between himself and Bill, who gave him a small frown as he moved away.

“Yeah, I texted you about it last night, but I guess you didn’t get it, she said. “But yeah she finally comes back from France today and she wants us to go meet her at the airport.”

“Can I drive to the airport?” Bill asked suddenly.

“Why?” Dipper asked wondering why Bill had never shown any inclination to drive before this.

“I want to try driving,” he replied.

Dipper was about to suggest Bill learn to drive at some other time when Mabel cut in saying, “You should let him drive Dipper, I’m sure he’ll do a great job.”

“I guess all right then, if you promise to be careful. Just let me back the car out of the driveway first,” Dipper said reluctantly.

Bill grinned at him as he went to go do just that. After parking it at the side of the road pointing in the direction they would need to head in to get to the airport he climbed out and handed to the keys to Bill. He then walked to the other side to sit in the passenger seat while Mabel sat in the back.

“Okay first you need to put the keys in the ignition,” Dipper said once they were all buckled in.

“I know Pine Tree, I’ve seen you and a bunch of other people start cars a million times,” Bill said as he turned the keys in the ignition and put the car in drive. “So how do I get to the airport?” he asked.

“Just drive straight for now and turn where I tell you,” Dipper said.

“Okay,” he replied as he as he pushed the gas pedal way to hard causing the car to shoot forward barely stopping in time to not hit the neighbour’s car.

“Oh my god Bill if you crash my car…” Dipper said suddenly wondering if letting Bill drive was a good idea.

“Calm down Pine Tree, I got this,” Bill assured him as he set the car moving again, slower this time. After moving slowly for a bit he started steadily increasing their speed as he gained confidence in the controls.

“Remember the speed limit Bill, if you get pulled over we’re in big trouble,” Mabel said.

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Bill replied as he slowed down a little.

It wasn’t long before Bill got the hang of it. Despite having a tendency to drive a bit too fast and not slowing down enough when turning, he didn’t really make that many mistakes. He seemed to already know all the rules of the road and followed them, most of the time anyway.

It took about an hour total to reach the airport. Bill wanted to try parking near all the other cars up front but Dipper convinced him not to. So instead he parked in the back, more than a little crookedly.

“Pacifica’s plane should be landing in like an hour,” Mabel said as they all climbed out of the car.

“What are we going to do while wait?” Bill asked.

“We just hang out I guess,” Dipper answered him.

“That’s no fun,” Bill complained.

“I brought a pack of cards so we can play some cards while we wait,” Mabel said as she pulled out a stranded deck of cards.

So they played cards to pass the time. Bill won every round and Dipper was convinced he was cheating but couldn’t ever figure out how he was doing it. After about an hour they had to stop as the intercom announced that the plane Pacifica was on was about to land.

As Pacifica approached them Dipper saw that she had three butlers straining under the weight of her massive amount of luggage. When she spotted them she quickened her pace.

“Oh Mabel sweetie, it’s so good to finally be home again,” she said as she pulled Mabel into a hug and briefly kissed her on both cheeks.

Mabel squealed in delight, “Oh, it’s so good to finally see you in person again. So how plane ride back from France?”

“Oh, it was awful. The service was terrible and customs insisted on checking every bag. Mabel whatever you do _never_ travel by air, trust me, it’s the absolute worst,” Pacifica replied before turning to Dipper. “Oh and Dipper, it’s really good to see you too.”

Dipper was expecting a friendly handshake and was more than a little surprised when she pulled him into a hug instead. He was even more surprised when she kissed both his cheeks before pulling away.

“Oh hello to you too, Pacifica,” Dipper said blushing.

“And you must be Bill Cipher, Dipper’s roommate right? Mabel’s told me a lot about you,” she said as she held out a hand towards Bill in an offer to shake hands, but Bill crossed his arms and turned his head away instead.

“Wow, be an ass then,” Pacifica said before turning back to Mabel. They then went a short distance away to catch up and chat about stuff.

“I don’t like her,” Bill said before Dipper could ask him why he’d been rude to Pacifica.

“Really, why not?” Dipper asked.

“I just don’t,” Bill replied. “Don’t you think she was a bit too friendly greeting you?”

“Well yeah, she might have a bit friendlier than usual, but we haven’t seen each other in a long while so like…” Dipper wasn’t really sure what Bill was mad about. “She just came back from living in France for a few years, and like that’s how they greet people over there, I think.”

“Yeah, but this _isn’t_ France, so she shouldn’t do that anymore. Besides you guys broke up ages ago. Why is she suddenly being all flirty with you?”

“I… I don’t know, why would you care if she’s flirting with me? Besides she greeted Mabel in the exact same way,” Dipper pointed out.

“I don’t care if she’s flirting with you. Why I would care about something like that? And just because she did it with Shooting Star doesn’t mean she needs to do it with you too.”

Wait was Bill… jealous?

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to start dating Pacifica any time soon,” Dipper said amused by the thought that Bill might be jealous.

“Good, you can do a lot better than her anyway,” Bill replied with conviction.

“Are you jealous that I might start dating her again?” Dipper teased.

“Of course I’m not jealous. Why would I be jealous? I have no reason to be jealous of Northwest. You can do whatever you want with her, I don’t care.”

Oh Bill was so totally jealous. But if he was jealous, did that mean… Dipper couldn’t help but feel a surge of joy at the thought that maybe, just maybe, Bill might have more than just friendly feelings towards him.

“Anyway, it’s time to go home Pine Tree. Can I drive back?” Bill interrupted his train of thought.

“Sure,” Dipper said handing him the car keys. Bill grabbed them and immediately headed for the car.

With a sigh Dipper went over to where the girls were talking. “Mabel it’s time go,” he said.

“Oh good, just let me go tell my servants to drop my stuff off at the manor,” Pacifica said before heading over to where her butlers patiently waited.

“Wait, she coming home with us? I thought that she’d want to take her limo or something,” Dipper said.

“Of course she’s coming with us. We did drive all the way down here to meet her after all,” Mabel said.

“Why though?” he asked.

“Because I’m _so_ not in the mood to talk to my mother right now," Pacifica said as she returned. "And I need to be out and about before jet lag catches up with me, so I’ll take you guys on a shopping spree instead. I might even buy your rude friend something if he’s nice to me."

“But…” Dipper began not wanting to go a shopping spree.

“Don’t go saying you don’t want to go shopping with us,” Mabel cut in. “It’ll be fun, and we’ll get food afterward.”

“Yeah, but…”

“No buts. I just got back and I want to go to the mall with you guys. And Dipper don’t worry it’ll be fun, I promise. Now where did you park?” Pacifica said before heading off with Mabel to the car.

With a sigh Dipper followed after them.

“Wow, your car is hideous,” Pacifica said when they reached the car.

“Yeah well, it’s old and it was a gift from my uncle,” Dipper said as they climbed in the car.

“Bill take us to mall,” Pacifica said.

“Why would we go to mall? I don’t even know how to drive to mall,” Bill said clearly unhappy at being told what to do.

“You know how to follow a GPS?” Pacifica asked pulling out her smart phone. After messing with it for a few seconds she handed it up to Bill. Dipper could see she had brought a GPS app that presumably pointed the way to the mall. “It’s expensive so you better not smudge the screen,” she added.

“Pine Tree are we really going to go to the mall with her?” Bill asked.

“Maybe it won’t be so bad,” Dipper didn’t want to go to the mall either but both Mabel and Pacifica clearly did and they would no doubt be unhappy if they couldn’t.

“Come Bill the mall will be fun,” Mabel said.

“Ugh okay fine,” Bill conceded as he placed the phone on console and started the car.

“So Pacifica what was it like living in France for so long?” Mabel excitedly asked once the car was rolling steadily along.

“It was nice to be away from my parents for so long but it’s still really wonderful to finally come back home. And you have no idea how much I’ve missed you’re company,” Pacifica responded.

Dipper chose to zone the rest of their conversation out and instead started to contemplate on why Bill had been jealous earlier. Did Bill really have _those_ kinds of feelings for him? Or was he just jealous because he was worried that Dipper might not hang out with him as much if he had a girlfriend? Was Bill even capable of having those kinds of feelings? He wasn’t human after all, so he might not be able to have romantic feelings for anyone at all. But Bill had said the other day that he trusted Dipper, could that perhaps mean that Bill liked him like that? And _if_ Bill really did feel that way about him did Dipper return those feelings?

Dipper cast a sidelong look at Bill. Yes, he was certainly very attractive. And Dipper did care about him an awful lot. They spent much of their time together and they cuddled every night. But did Dipper really like him like that? He wasn’t entirely sure yet, but he was beginning to think that maybe he did.

“Is there something you want Pine Tree?” Bill asked suddenly.

Realizing he’d been staring Dipper quickly turned to look out his window, “No, I was just thinking about stuff.”

“What kind of stuff?”

“Just stuff, nothing important,” Dipper said making sure Bill wouldn’t see he was blushing.


	19. Confusing Emotions

It took about an hour to reach the mall. It was a big fancy mall that Pacifica loved to shop at. She and Mabel had dragged Dipper to it on multiple occasions before, almost every time he had ended up acting as Pacifica’s pack mule. A fate he was probably doomed to endure once more.

The girls immediately took the lead linking arms as they did so. Dipper and Bill followed after them a short distance away.

As they walked through the mall past numerous clothing shops Dipper got the impression that the girls were talking about him and Bill. They were too far ahead for him to hear what they were whispering to each other but one or both of them would occasionally look back and giggle before returning to their conversation. Every time Pacifica looked back she’d smile and wave at them.

“Who does she even think she is anyway?” Bill said after the third time Pacifica did this.

“I don’t get why you dislike her so much,” Dipper replied.

“There doesn’t have to be a reason, I just don’t like her,” Bill said.

Just then the girls stopped and waited for them to catch up. They had stopped because they had reached one of their favourite clothing stores.

“So Bill, Mabel was telling me you sew,” Pacifica said when they started to head inside the store. “She said you sewed that neat little brick pattern and eye on your shirt there.”

“Yeah, I did, what of it?” Bill said.

“It looks nice… sort of. I mean like the stitching looks nice, but the pattern not so much. You should try going for a more complex interesting design.”

“Why do you care?” Bill asked.

“Oh, I’m just trying to make conversion, so that maybe you’ll stop hating me for no real reason. But obviously it hasn’t worked,” Pacifica said before angrily turning away.

“Oh, look at this Pacifica,” Mabel said loudly before Bill could make a retort. Mabel was holding up some sweater she liked.

“Oh wow, that is cute. You want me to buy it for you sweetie?” Pacifica said with a smile.

“Would you? I never get to buy clothes from this shop, they’re too expensive,” Mabel said excitedly.

“Of course, you can buy whatever you want, it’s my treat,” Pacifica said. “Oh and Dipper sweetie, if you or your rude friend want anything feel free to ask. I’m in a generous mood today.”

And with that the girls started excitedly looking through the clothing store. Dipper and Bill reluctantly tagged along after them.

“Why does she call you ‘sweetie’? It’s annoying,” Bill said.

“She called Mabel ‘sweetie’ too,” Dipper pointed out.

“Doesn’t mean she has to call you ‘sweetie’,” Bill replied angrily crossing his arms.

After the girls had _finally_ finished shopping in this particular store they paid at the cash register using Pacifica’s card.

“Dipper would you be a dear and carry our shopping bags?” Pacifica didn’t even wait for him to answer before holding them to him.

“Fine,” Dipper sighed accepting them. Luckily they weren’t that heavy and there weren’t too many of them, or at least not yet anyway.

“Good, now walk with me,” Pacifica said linking her arm with his and taking the lead.

“Uh, maybe I shouldn’t,” Dipper said trying to pull away but she wouldn’t let him.

“You can be with your boyfriend later. We haven’t seen each other in ages and I want to talk to you,” she replied.

Looking back Dipper saw that Mabel had linked arms with Bill and was excitedly talking to him about something. Bill of course did not look very happy.

“He’s not my boyfriend,” he protested looking back at Pacifica.

“No, of course he’s not, because you two are too stupid to see what’s right in front you.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Dipper said blushing a little.

“It’s obvious you guys have the hots for each other. Like Mabel has been telling me about the two of you for over the past few months. And she says you guys have clearly had more than just friendly feelings for each other for a while now. And even having only been around you two for just a few hours, I can see it,” Pacifica replied. “I saw how you looked at him in the car, you _clearly_ like him more than just as a friend.”

“Okay, maybe I do sort of have those kind of feelings for him, but I have no way of knowing if he feels the same. And there are some things about him that might make that kind of relationship impossible,” Dipper said.

“Yeah, Mabel told me something really bad happened to him and that he’s still dealing with it. She said she doesn’t know the whole story and couldn’t tell me what little she did know, but she’s pretty sure he told you about it,” Pacifica said. “Now, I don’t know that nature of that bad thing, but I do know that dealing with bad things can be a lot easier if you have someone by your side who cares about you. And as for you not knowing how he feels, you must be blind to not notice his jealousy towards me. Also Mabel sent me pictures of you guys cuddling and she told me how you guys danced together at Grenda’s wedding. So really you have no excuse to not tell him how you feel.”

“But…”

“No buts Dipper, it’s obvious that you two are hopelessly in love with each other. So you should totally tell him.”

“Who said anything about ‘love’?”

“Mabel did. She said you guys are so totally in love but you just haven’t realized it yet. She said you’re in total denial of your feelings, which is something that needs to stop. So like suck it up and tell Bill how you feel already. And maybe once you guys are finally a thing he’ll stop being such an ass to me for flirting with you.”

Could Dipper really be falling in love with Bill? Was that even possible? But what if he was?

“Okay, now tell me about you next book. I read the first one and it was quite good and now I really want to read the sequel,” Pacifica said suddenly interrupting his chain of thought.

“I’ve uh, finished it and just need to edit it and stuff,” Dipper replied.

From there their conversion turned to how they’d spent the years since they last saw each other, they had talked some on social media but not very often so they weren’t really up to date on what the other had been doing. Pacifica of course dominated the conversation with her tales of her time spent in France and how the stereotype that they were mostly snobs was true. Ignoring the fact that she had probably been snobby to them first.

 

_***Bill Cipher***_

Bill watched annoyed as Northwest linked arms with Pine Tree, pulling them into the lead. He was about to go up and say something, (what he didn’t know, but anything to get them to pull apart) when Shooting Star linked arms with him.

“Hey Bill, what’s up?” she asked.

“I hate Northwest,” he replied.

“And why is that? Is it because you’re jealous?” Shooting Star asked with a smile.

“And why would I be jealous of her?”

“Because you like Dipper, and you don’t want anyone to steal him from you.”

Of course he liked Pine Tree, but that didn’t explain why seeing him and Northwest together made him so mad. He hadn’t had any problem with Northwest before this, so why did seeing her flirt with Pine Tree make him want to tell her to fuck off? The chances of them starting to date again were rather low, Pine Tree wasn’t really attracted to her like that. (Not that he could really know for sure anymore.) So why did he get so mad every time Northwest flirted with Pine Tree?

“Admit it, you like Dipper a _whole_ lot and you’re worried he might hook up with Pacifica. But he won’t, because he likes you a _whole_ lot too,” Shooting Star said.

“What do you mean by that?” Bill asked.

“I mean you guys are clearly more than just friends,” she replied.

“Shooting Star I have no idea what you’re trying to say. How can Pine Tree and I be any more than friends?”

“Ugh, do I have to spell it out for you? I’m saying you and Dipper should become a couple. You guys obviously care for each other very much and I think you guys would make a perfect couple,” she explained.

“So you mean like how everyone thought we were at the wedding?”

“Yep, that’s exactly what I mean,” Shooting Star said happily.

Bill had never considered his relationship with Pine Tree in that light before. In fact he’d never considered a romantic relationship with anyone before, he’d never been in a position where he would ever need or want something like that. But now, after everything that had happened to him, that kind of relationship didn’t seem too terribly far-fetched.

“I think you should tell Dipper how you feel about him,” Shooting Star said.

“But I don’t know how I feel about him, Shooting Star. I like him a whole lot, more than anyone or anything else. But I don’t really understand my feelings for him, I’ve never felt the way I feel about Pine Tree before. And now you’ve just made me confused about it,” he replied.

“You don’t have to be confused about it. You care about Dipper, right? And being with him makes you feel better, right? So like you should tell him how you feel and then you’ll see that he feels the same,” she said.

Bill supposed that he did care about Pine Tree a lot, even though he had never cared for anyone else before (never had any reason to until now). But did he care about Pine Tree in a romantic way like Shooting Star was suggesting, or just as a really close friend?

“Shooting Star what is it that made you think that I like Pine Tree in a romantic way?” he asked.

“Well, I’ve seen the way you guys always sit real close on the couch, and how much you both like to spend time together. And you seem a lot happier now since you first moved in with Dipper. At Grenda’s wedding you were super into cuddling with him and then when you slow danced it was obvious that you both enjoyed it very much. And correct me if I’m wrong, but you told him about the necromancer, right?” she replied.

“How did you know I told him about that?”

“Just the way you guys have been acting the past few days. Dipper’s been very tender towards you lately, he’s always putting his arm around you and he makes sure to sit real close to you all the time. He thinks I don’t notice but I do, and it’s really super adorable.”

“So maybe I do care for Pine Tree like that, what do I do about it? And what if he doesn’t feel the same?” Bill asked.

“You tell him. And as his sister I can assure you he feels the same,” Shooting Star answered with a smile.

“But I don’t really understand it. How can I tell him about something I don’t really understand?”

Why did his feelings for Pine Tree have to be so confusing all of a sudden? He had been perfectly content to just enjoy being with Pine Tree, why did Shooting Star have to go and make him wonder why he cared about Pine Tree so much? He knew he liked it when they cuddled at night and loved when Pine Tree would hold and comfort him. So maybe he did have romantic feelings for Pine Tree. But how could he know for sure? He had never felt this way before and had no idea what his feelings might mean.

“Don’t worry about understanding it, just talk to him about it,” Shooting Star said with a kind smile.

_***_

 

Eventually Pacifica pulled Dipper to a stop in front of another clothing store. “Okay Dipper, Mabel and I are going go in here real quick. Why don’t you and Bill hang out here for a bit until we’re done?” she said.

“Um, sure I guess,” Dipper said.

“Good, we’ll see you two lovebirds later then,” she said before heading in the store.

Before following Pacifica into the store Mabel casually took Pacifica’s shopping bags from Dipper giving him a sly wink as she did so.

“I hate this Pine Tree. Why did we agree to come with them?” Bill asked as he rejoined Dipper. He looked thoroughly unhappy and maybe a little confused about something, but Dipper couldn’t even begin to guess what about.

“I don't know, because we didn't have anything better to do,” Dipper sighed already dreading the amount bags he would no doubt end up carrying before this shopping spree was over.

“So what did you and Northwest talk about?”

“Not much, mostly she just complained to me about how much she didn’t like France,” Dipper said. “What did you Mabel talk about?”

“Just stuff,” Bill shrugged.

As they stood there waiting for the girls to finish Dipper thought back to what Pacifica had said about him and Bill. He was thoroughly confused about his feelings for Bill and even more unsure about Bill’s feelings for him. Yeah Bill was obviously jealous of Pacifica but that didn’t necessarily mean anything, did it? And Dipper knew he cared about Bill an awful lot, but could he really be falling in love with him?

If somebody had told him half a year ago that he might possibly fall in love with Bill Cipher of all people he would’ve thought they were joking. But right here, right now that thought didn’t seem as crazy as it might once have been.

“Is there something you want Pine Tree?” Bill asked suddenly.

Dipper had been caught staring again. “No, I was just lost in thought,” he said turning his head to the side in an attempt to prevent Bill from seeing that he was blushing.

“Really? What were you lost in thought about?” Bill asked taking a step closer.

“Oh nothing, just stuff,” Dipper replied taking a step back.

“You weren’t thinking about Northwest, were you?” Bill gave Dipper a measured look.

“I… no of course not. Look Bill I’m not interested in Pacifica like that and I never will be. So there’s no need for you to be jealous of her.”

“I’m not jealous, I just don’t like it when she flirts with you, that’s all.”

“And why is that?” Dipper asked unsure of what kind of response he wanted.

“I don’t know, it just makes me angry for some reason,” Bill said miserably. “Pine Tree, why do emotions and feelings have to be so confusing all the time? Like why can’t things just be simple and easy to understand the way they used to be?”

“That’s just how life is sometimes,” Dipper replied.

“Yeah well being confused sucks,” Bill said. “Anyway, I’m bored. We should go find something more exciting to do.”

“What about Mabel and Pacifica?” Dipper asked.

“They can have fun looking at clothes and stuff while we go do something real,” Bill said as he linked arms with Dipper and began walking with him.


	20. A Conversation in a Bookstore

As they walked along in silence Bill seemed to be lost in thought about something and Dipper wondered what it could possibly be. He wanted to ask but didn’t because Bill probably wouldn’t want to tell him. Besides Dipper had his own stuff to think about.

Like whether or not Pacifica was right about his feelings for Bill. Even if Dipper did like Bill like that (which he was beginning to think he did) how could he possibly tell him? And more importantly what were the chances that Bill returned those feelings?

“Hey look Pine Tree, a book store. That’s definitely more exciting than clothes,” Bill said leading the way inside.

Dipper was more than happy to stop thinking such confusing thoughts and look around a bookstore instead. Inside the place was quiet and big and other than the cashier up front they were the only ones in there.

In the back in a kind of private corner of the store they found a section entirely dedicated to the supernatural. They didn’t speak much as they looked through all the various books on the selves. In fact every time Dipper glanced over to Bill he seemed to very purposefully avoid eye contact. Dipper wondered why that was but just as he was about to say something he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket signaling he had a text message. Pulling it out he saw it was from Mabel.

_Hey Dip where’d you guys go?_ It read.

_Bill got bored so we started walking some more. We found a bookstore that looked interesting so we went in,_ he replied.

_Good, you guys enjoy your alone time ;)_ she texted back.

_What’s the winky face supposed to mean?_ He replied.

_You know exactly what it’s supposed to mean. ;) ;) ;) ;)_

_I don’t, but whatever._ He texted back before putting his phone away.

“Hey Pine Tree, look this book has a picture of me on it,” Bill said a few seconds later as he held up a book he had just taken off the shelf to get a better look at.

Dipper looked over and saw that Bill was holding a book entitled _Dream Demons_ that did indeed have a picture of Bill’s original form on the cover.

“There’s an entire section in here all about me. It’s about everything I used to be and everything I used to be able to do,” Bill said as he flipped through the book opening to a page near the beginning that he started to read from. “’He is thought to not only be the most powerful dream demon of all time but also one of the most powerful demons in existence as well.’ Ha, I wonder what they would say if they could see me now.”

“Bill, you okay?” Dipper asked before Bill could read any more out of the book.

“I’m so pathetic Pine Tree. I always get so depressed when I’m reminded of what I used to be, but I’m always doing stuff and looking at things that’ll remind me of it anyway. And now because of Shooting Star I’m all confused about my feelings for you, and I just don’t know what to think anymore. Why does everything have to be either confusing and horrible or just plain confusing? Why can’t everything just go back to normal?” Bill ran his fingers along the cover as he spoke the last sentence.

Dipper gently took the book from his hands and placed it back on the shelf where it belonged. “Don’t let yourself get reminded of it then. And as for everything being confusing and horrible, try not thinking about that too much either. But uh, if you need to talk about anything, I’m uh here for you.”

“This whole situation is kind of funny, don’t you think Pine Tree?” Bill said after a short pause.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean I’m supposed be some kind of all-powerful being, right? I shouldn’t ever need someone to comfort me. And yet here I am, weak and powerless with someone who once believed that I was evil trying to make me feel better about all this.”

“I’m sorry Bill, I really wish I could do more. If I could free you I would.”

“Can I ask you something Pine Tree?”

“Yeah, sure what is it?”

“Why does me being sad about all this seem to make you sad too? Every time when it comes up and I start feeling down and stuff you always get all concerned for me. Like the other day after I told you about the necromancer you seemed sad and got all apologetic about stuff you did months ago. And when you first found out about my nightmares you didn’t even ask me what they were about, even though I know you wanted to know, you just wanted to make sure I was okay. Why is that?” Bill said.

“Well that’s because you’re my friend and I… care about you,” Dipper replied resisting the urge to stare down at the floor. “I know that this whole situation you’re going through with the necromancer and being trapped like that must be horrible. But like if there’s anything I can do to make you feel even a little bit better tell me and I’ll uh, do it.”

“Oh Pine Tree, you do make me feel better. You’re the only thing that makes any of this bearable. You’re the reason I haven’t jumped into an active volcano or a vat of acid yet.”

“What would happen if you _did_ jump into lava or acid?” Dipper asked.

“I don’t know. It might destroy me somehow, it might leave me trapped in that spot instead of in this body, or it might free me. I have no way knowing unless I try it. But because it might destroy me or leave me in a worse spot then this I haven’t. But I probably would’ve done it by now if I didn’t have you to distract me from stuff and keep me company,” Bill replied.

“Well I’m glad that you’re not taking that risk then,” Dipper replied.

“I still might try it one day, if the opportunity ever presents itself,” Bill said nonchalantly.

“What?! No, please don’t do that, never do that,” Dipper said shocked.

Bill seemed surprised by Dipper’s concern. “You… really care that much?” he asked after a few seconds had passed.

“Yes, I… really care about you that much,” Dipper said. “You’re very important to me and I can’t bear the thought of losing you like that that. So can you please, _please_ promise me that you’ll _never_ jump into lava or acid?”

“Okay, all right, if it means that much to you, I promise I won’t ever jump into lava or acid,” Bill said.

“Thank you,” Dipper said with a sigh of relief. It made him sad beyond belief that Bill would even consider taking such a risk to get free.

He knew he’d never be able to truly understand what Bill was going through and he wished there was something he could do that would actually help. But there wasn’t, the only thing he could do for Bill was be there for him. And he was determined to do just that.

Taking a deep breath Dipper tentatively took Bill’s hand, noticing how cold it was. “Bill, I care about you a lot, more than anyone else I’ve ever known… and I want you to know that… I’ll always be here for you,” he said.

“Do you mean that in a… romantic way? Like you want us to be more than just friends?” Bill was blushing as he looked up at Dipper.

“Yes, I care about you in a… romantic way, and I wouldn’t mind… being more than just friends. But I totally understand if you don’t return those feelings or don’t want to be in that type of relationship,” Dipper said feeling like he was dying from embarrassment.

“I like it when you blush like that Pine Tree, it’s adorable.”

“Yeah well…” Dipper said wishing he could hide his face.

“I like you like that too Pine Tree,” Bill said grinning. “Or at least I’m pretty sure I do. I’ve never had romantic feelings for anyone before and I’ve never had as a good a friend as you. So like these feelings I have for you are strange and confusing, but I wouldn’t mind trying this romantic relationship thing with you.”

Dipper felt himself go weak at the knees as he let out a sigh of relief. Bill actually returned his feelings. He hadn’t realized until that moment just how much he had hoped Bill would feel the same way he did.

“Really?” he asked.

“Yeah, really,” Bill answered. “Even though I still wish you weren’t so much taller than me.”

“I’m not _that_ much taller than you, am I?”

“Yeah you are, but I can deal with it,” Bill replied with a grin. “So now that we’re a… couple what do we do?”

“Well uh… I don’t know… maybe we could uh try… kissing?” Dipper said.

“That sounds like fun, let’s do it,” Bill said excitedly. “How do we kiss? I’ve seen it done before but I never really paid much attention to it.”

“Well, I uh… don’t really know how to explain it.”

“Just kiss me then and I’ll follow your lead,” Bill said as he stood on his toes and wrapped his arms around Dipper’s neck.

Nervous Dipper wrapped his arms Bill pulling him closer. Then titling his head a little he tentatively touched his lips to Bill’s in a gentle kiss. It only lasted a few seconds but it still left Dipper feeling eager for more.

“So like this?” Bill said before kissing him again.

Dipper took a long shaky breath when they pulled apart some seconds later. “Yeah, just like that.”

“This is fun,” Bill said smiling. “Let’s do it again.”

Dipper happily complied as he pulled Bill close and kissed him again, much more confidently this time. The very few times he had kissed before had never been like this. For one Bill was shorter than him, so he had to lean over a little, but also no other kiss had felt this good either.

“See I told you it would work.”

Jumping and pulling apart Dipper glanced over to see Mabel and Pacifica had come out for behind one the book cases. It was Pacifica who had spoken to Mabel who had a large smile on her face as she excitedly bounced up and down on her feet.

“Oh, hey Shooting Star,” Bill said grinning. “Guess what, you were right, Pine Tree and I are like a thing now.”

“Yeah I saw,” Mabel said unable to contain her happiness, “Pacifica I can’t believe our plan really worked.”

“Of course it worked, our plans always work,” Pacifica replied with a smile.

“What plan?” Dipper asked embarrassed over being caught kissing Bill.

“Well you see, Mabel has been telling me all about how you guys have been all lovey-dovey for a while now but refused to acknowledge it. So we were talking and we decided to give you two a little push in the right direction. We determined that it would be best if Mabel talked to Bill about his feelings for you and I talked to you about your feelings for him. And as you know it worked, you guys are now a happy couple.”

“Is that why you were flirting with me, to make Bill jealous?” Dipper asked.

“No, I was flirting with you because I like flirting with you,” Pacifica said before deliberately walking over and giving Dipper a quick kiss on the check.

“Hey…” Bill began.

“That one was to make you jealous though,” Pacifica said giving Bill a smile. “By the way, why do you call them ‘Pine Tree’ and ‘Shooting Star’?”

“I just do,” Bill shrugged as he took a step closer to Dipper, as if that could somehow keep Pacifica away from him.

“Oh Dipper, Bill, I’m so happy for you guys,” Mabel said excitedly before giving them both a brief but tight hug.

“It’s okay Mabel you don’t need to make such a big deal out of it,” Dipper said embarrassed over how excited she was.

“I know, but you guys have been like so obviously in love for what feels like ages now and I’m so happy to see you guys finally realize that. And you guys are like so super cute together and I just can’t not be excited for you.”

Dipper wasn’t really sure how to respond to that. And thankfully he didn’t have to as Pacifica cut in saying, “Anyway Mabel and I are going to continue shopping, you guys can come along or not as you please.”

“Nah, we’re good, you two have fun,” Dipper said wanting some more alone time with Bill.

“Okay, see you guys later than,” Mabel replied still smiling. “We’ll call you when we’re done.”

And with that Pacifica gathered up all the shopping bags she had dropped on the floor and left with Mabel. Leaving Dipper and Bill alone once more.


	21. Dating a Demon

“What are we going to do now, Pine Tree?” Bill asked once the girls were gone.

“I don’t know. We could walk around some more,” Dipper replied.

“Like a date?” Bill asked with a grin.

“Yeah sure, like a date,” Dipper said.

As they left the book store Bill slipped his hand into Dipper’s so that they were holding hands as they walked.

“Bill, I have a question,” Dipper said after they’d been walking for a little while.

“What is it?” Bill asked.

“Well uh, how do I put this? Do beings from your dimension… do they normally do the whole romantic relationship thing, or is this like a weird thing for you?”

“Others from my dimension would sometimes have an equivalent relationship, but only with other demons from a nearby or same dimension,” Bill replied.

“So have you ever had this kind of relationship with anyone from your dimension before?”

“No, this is the first time I’ve done this,” Bill replied. “My kind didn’t like socializing with me because of my interest in things they considered to not be worth anyone’s time. Also there was the fact that I could’ve easily destroyed any one of them. And romance among my kind is hard enough without all that.”

“Why would romance be hard for your kind?” Dipper asked.

“Because most of them are antisocial, so it’s very rare that two would meet and spend enough time together to form that kind of bond. But it did happen occasionally and when it did it was always forever,” Bill explained.

“Really? So they would never break up or get a divorce or something?” Dipper asked.

“Yep, as far as I know none of them have ever broken up. And I don’t think they ever will either. I never really understood that about them or any other intelligent lifeforms with romantic relationships. Why they would want to spend that much time with one person, not until now anyway,” Bill said.

 

Eventually they walked the entire circumference of the mall and were back at where they had started, without finding anything exciting to do.

“Why does the mall have be so boring?” Bill complained.

“Because it’s the mall, there’s never anything to do at the mall other than shop for clothes and stuff,” Dipper said.

“Well I’m bored, you should entertain me Pine Tree,” Bill said pulling Dipper to a stop and turning him so that they faced each other.

“And how am I supposed to entertain you?” Dipper asked nervously.

“I don’t know, but I’m sure you can think of something.”

Dipper had a feeling that Bill wanted to him to do something specific but had no idea what. “I’ll text Mabel and ask her if their done shopping yet,” he said earning himself a disappointed look from Bill.

_I guess we can be. We’ll meet you guys by the car in 10 mins._ Was the reply he got back a short while later after he sent his own text.

“All right, let’s go back to the car then,” Bill said, he had been standing at Dipper’s shoulder so that he could read the text too.

“Okay,” Dipper said pocketing his phone.

As they walked back to the car Bill slipped his hand into Dipper’s once more so that they were holding hands again.

“So what do we do while we wait for Shooting Star and Northwest to show up?” Bill asked once they reached the car.

“I don’t know,” Dipper shrugged.

“I’m sure there’s _something_ we could do while we wait,” Bill said taking a step closer and wrapping his arms around Dipper’s neck.

“Yeah, I guess there is,” Dipper said pulling Bill closer and leaning in to kiss him.

When they pulled apart some seconds later, Dipper on an impulse put his hands on Bill’s sides and lifted him up enough so that he could sit on the hood of the car. Meaning he no longer had to stand on his toes.

“Much better,” Bill whispered as Dipper leaned in to kiss him again.

“Wow, you two are really cute together,” Pacifica’s voice suddenly came from behind Dipper.

Jumping and turning around Dipper saw Mabel and Pacifica standing behind him. Both of them were smiling wide and had several shopping bags weighing them down.

“Oh hey guys,” Dipper said blushing.

“Hey Dip, having fun?” Mabel asked.

“Dipper be dear would you and open the trunk for us?” Pacifica said before he could try to formulate a response.

“Of course,” he said pulling out his keys and opening the trunk so that they could place their shopping bags inside.

“Okay now, Dipper give me the keys please, I would like to drive,” Pacifica said once she and Mabel had finished putting their shopping bags in the trunk.

“I’m driving,” Bill said as he dropped down off the hood of the car.

“You probably don’t know the way to my manor so I should drive instead. Besides you drove up here,” Pacifica said holding out her hand to Dipper.

“Well it’s Pine Tree’s car so he gets to decide who drives, and he’s obviously going to pick me,” Bill said grinning as he also held out his hand for the car keys.

“You know what, I think I’ll let Mabel drive this time. She knows the way to the Northwest manor,” Dipper said tossing his sister the keys.

“Yay,” she exclaimed delightedly as she caught them.

“Dipper!” Pacifica protested. “All right fine, but I sit in passenger seat.”

“But Pine Tree…” Bill said disappointed.

“I’ll let you drive us home, okay?” Dipper said as they all climbed into the car.

“But now we have sit in the back,” Bill complained once they were all in.

“Sitting in the back isn’t really all that bad,” Dipper said putting an arm around Bill pulling him closer.

“Hmmm, all right fine, at least you didn’t let Northwest drive,” Bill said cuddling up against Dipper’s side.

 

When they reached the Northwest manor they all climbed out of the car again. Pacifica gestured over one of her servants instructing him to carry her shopping bags inside.

“I guess I’ll see you guys later then,” she said as she gave Mabel one last brief hug.

“Yeah, see you later,” Mabel said.

“And now I get to drive home, right?” Bill asked grinning.

“Yeah sure go ahead,” Dipper said.

 

When they got home they sat on the couch next to each other to watch some T.V. Bill almost immediately cuddled up against Dipper’s side resting his head on Dipper’s shoulder.

As Dipper put an arm around Bill he reflected back on all that had happened that day. Part of him was still kind of surprised that Bill returned his feelings and that they were like a thing now. His boyfriend was Bill Cipher of all people. He was now romantically involved with a demon from another dimension. The thought made him feel giddy and excited. He never thought he’d ever grow to care for Bill as much as he did, and now that they were back home they could kiss for as long as they wanted without anyone interrupting them.


	22. Exorcism

Over the next month or so Dipper and Bill grew closer than ever. They cuddled like all the time and it was probably the happiest Dipper had ever been. He could spend hours on the couch watching T.V. with his arms wrapped around Bill who would lean back against him. At first Dipper would be embarrassed any time Mabel would come over and see them like this but he soon got used to it.

Summerween was fast approaching so many of the local T.V. stations were airing various old horror films. Having nothing better to do Dipper and Bill were hanging out on the couch watching some of them.

They were watching one about a kid who was possessed by a demon, it wasn’t very exciting and Dipper wasn’t paying that much attention to it. Not until he suddenly felt Bill tense up at side anyway. Paying attention to the movie once more Dipper saw a priest chanting some Latin words over the demon possessed kid in an attempt to exorcise it.

“Hey Pine Tree… do you think that maybe…” Bill trailed off.

“Do you think it would work?” Dipper asked.

Now that Dipper thought about it, it made sense. Bill was a demon after all and exorcism was how one would normally stop a demon from possessing someone. But was exorcism magic more powerful than the magic keeping him trapped like that?

“I don’t know, but it worked on me when I was in a body I intentionally possessed so it might work on me now,” Bill said clearly starting to get excited now. “Pine Tree we _have_ to try it.”

“You’ve been exorcised before?” Dipper asked.

“Yeah, it was a few thousand years ago. At the time I thought that was the most unpleasant thing I could ever go through, I was so very wrong about that. And I can’t believe I haven’t thought of it until now. But we have to try it right now. Please Pine Tree please say we’ll try it,” Bill pleaded.

“Of course we’ll try it, you know I’d do anything for you,” Dipper said.

“Oh you’re the best Pine Tree,” Bill said before excitedly throwing his arms around Dipper’s neck and passionately kissing him.

Dipper hadn’t been expecting Bill to suddenly kiss him like that but soon found himself completely caught up in it. Everything else around him seemed to disappear as Bill kissed him. Dipper was even starting to feel a little aroused when Bill suddenly pulled away.

“Come on Pine Tree let’s go, I think I still remember how that stupid wannabe priest exorcised me last time,” Bill grinned seemingly oblivious to how he’d affected Dipper.

“You do?” Dipper asked feeling a little lightheaded. He was disappointed that Bill hadn’t taken the kiss further, but that was probably the last thing on his mind right now so Dipper didn’t really blame him.

“Yeah I do, I’ll type it up for you so you can read it,” Bill replied grinning excitedly.

As they made their way to Dipper’s office Bill was almost skipping. Dipper didn’t think he’d ever seen Bill this excited before. He wanted to be excited too, but couldn’t shake the worry that this wouldn’t work and that all of Bill’s newfound hopes would come crashing down. He wanted to caution Bill about this possibility but couldn’t bring himself to do it. He just had to hope and pray that it would work.

When they were in Dipper’s office Bill booted up the computer and started typing. Dipper figured he knew what he was doing and just watched.

“Here, this is what worked last time. I still can’t believe I’ve never thought of this before now, it makes so much sense,” Bill said after typing for several minutes. “If you just read this out loudly it should work.”

Reading it over Dipper quickly realized that this form of exorcism was vastly different from most of the others that he had seen over the years. Partly because this one had nothing to do with any religion and it didn’t call for anything beyond reading the words, which were all in Latin. It was also clearly specially made to be used against Bill, it made numerous references to expelling him specifically.

“Why does Latin work anyway?” Dipper asked.

“Because Latin is a magic language if you use it properly. It’s not the only one but all the others are long forgotten, or not from this dimension at all,” Bill explained.

“Really? Do you think you could teach me, or at least show me, some of those other magic languages?” Dipper asked.

“Sure but only after we see if this works,” Bill said.

“Yeah, of course,” Dipper said as he set the word document to print.

“So where do you want to do this?” he asked once it was done printing and he had the paper in hand.

“I don’t know, wherever’s fine,” Bill replied clearly trying to keep his excitement in check.

“Okay, how ‘bout the bedroom,” Dipper suggested.

Once they entered the bedroom Dipper sat down on the bed and as he was about to say something Bill hugged him and pulled him into another passionate kiss. He hadn’t been expecting it this time either but was more than glad to reciprocate as he pulled Bill down on the bed with him so that Bill was almost laying on top of him.

Dipper was more than a little disappointed when Bill finally broke the kiss a short time later and rolled off of him. “Pine Tree, if this works I’ll be forever in your debt,” he said.

Suddenly remembering what they were doing Dipper forced himself to clear his head as he stood up, picking up the piece of paper again from where he’d absentmindedly placed it on the bed. “You sure that this isn’t going to hurt you or anything?” he asked.

“I imagine it won’t be pleasant, it never is. But if it works it’ll be worth it,” Bill said grinning.

Feeling a little reassured by that Dipper read over it a few times to make sure he would get it right. Ford had taught him to read and speak Latin a long time ago and he was a bit rusty but he was pretty sure he could it.

“Okay here goes,” Dipper said taking a deep breath as he began to pace across the room as he read the words on the page.

Not long after he started he could’ve sworn the room got noticeably colder. He didn’t think he’d ever experienced anything like that before but he ignored it and kept reading.

About three quarters of the way through it Dipper glanced over to where Bill was lying on the bed. He was on his side, curled up in a ball with a pained expression on his face.

“You okay?” Dipper asked.

“Yeah, I’m good, keep going,” Bill’s voice sounded a little strained.

“Does it hurt?” Dipper asked concerned.

“Yeah, but I’ll be fine. I’ve been through worse, I can handle this,” Bill said.

Feeling a bit apprehensive Dipper started reading where he had left off. As he finished reading it he heard Bill let out a muffled cry as he buried his face in the pillow.

“You okay Bill?” Dipper said hurrying to his side. “Did it work?”

“No, it didn’t work,” Bill groaned clutching at his chest. “Try reading it again, please.”

“But…”

“Please Pine Tree, maybe it’ll work this time,” Bill pleaded looking up at Dipper.

“Are you sure? I don’t want to hurt you,” Dipper wanted to pull Bill into a hug but wasn’t sure he would welcome that right now.

“Don’t worry about hurting me, if it works it’ll all be worth it. So _please_ Pine Tree, try one more time.”

Not sure what else to do Dipper started reading off the paper again. As he read he would occasionally glance over to Bill, who looked like he was in more and more pain as time went on. It made Dipper want to stop but Bill would no doubt want him to keep going, at least until he finished anyway. And again as he finished Bill let out another pained cry.

“Read it again Pine Tree,” Bill said even before Dipper could ask him if he was all right this time.

“But…”

“Please Pine Tree, maybe third time’s the charm,” Bill’s eyes glistened with unshed tears as he looked pleadingly up at Dipper. Whether those tears were from pain, disappointment or a little of both Dipper didn’t know, but he knew he had to try one more time.

“Okay if you’re sure,” Dipper said sitting at the edge of the bed and taking hold of one of Bill’s hands in the hand that wasn’t holding the paper.

This time as he read he felt Bill squeeze his hand tighter and tighter as he went. About half way through he heard Bill let out a small moan.

“Bill this isn’t working, all it’s doing is hurting you,” Dipper said turning to look at him.

“Please finish Pine Tree,” Bill begged.

“I can’t, it’s not working. All I’m doing is causing you pain,” Dipper said.

“But it was supposed to work. It made so much sense,” Bill said despairingly.

“I’m sorry Bill, I really am. I wished it had worked, but it didn’t and I can’t intentionally hurt you like this anymore,” Dipper said placing the paper on the bedside table.

“You’re right, it’s not going to work,” Bill said with a heavy sigh as he rolled onto his back. “I’m stuck like this forever.”

“Oh Bill I’m so sorry. I wish there was something I could do, but there isn’t. We’ve tried everything, and I’m really, _really_ sorry that nothing’s worked.”

“Don’t beat yourself up about it Pine Tree,” Bill took a deep breath as a single tear ran down the side of his face. “I’d ask you to hold me but I feel like I’m in an oven.”

Bill then weakly pulled his shirt off over his head. Dipper was shocked to see the runes on his chest were glowing a deep crimson.

“They’ve never done that before,” Bill said looking down at them. “They’ve also never felt this hot before.”

“Do they hurt?” Dipper asked.

“Yes, but it’s not that pain that’s causing me problems. It’s the pain that my actual self is feeling that’s bothering me,” Bill said. “It’s weird Pine Tree, it felt like I was being pulled out of this body only there were burning hot chains keeping me in. The more I was pulled the tighter and hotter the chains became. Even now I still feel like I’m tightly wrapped up in them. I feel so… constricted, and it hurts Pine Tree, it hurts.”

“I’m _so_ sorry I did this to you Bill,” Dipper said as he took hold of Bill’s hand again. He desperately wished that he had insisted that they stop after it hadn’t worked the first time.

“It’s okay Pine Tree, I asked you to. I shouldn’t have let my hopes get so high but it was still worth a try.”

Dipper sighed heavily. “Is it okay if I touch them?” he asked referring to the runes on Bill’s chest.

“Sure,” Bill replied.

Dipper gingerly placed a hand on Bill’s chest but immediately pulled it back again. The runes were _hot_ , not hot enough to burn but hot enough to hurt.

“That can’t be pleasant,” Dipper said wincing.

“No, it’s not,” Bill replied. “Most of the time they’re cold, but as you were reading they got hotter and hotter, and now they feel like they’re on fire or something.”

“Hold on, I’ll be right back,” Dipper said before quickly running to the kitchen where he filled a bucket full of cold water and grabbed a wash cloth.

As he returned he sat on the edge of the bed again and wet the wash cloth in the bucket. After squeezing it so it wouldn’t get water everywhere he gently pressed it to the still glowing runes on Bill’s chest. He did his best to makes sure it covered most of them.

“Ah that feels so good Pine Tree, thank you,” Bill said as he pressed Dipper’s hand down against his chest.

“Is there anything I can do to make the pain less?” Dipper asked.

“What you’re doing now is enough,” Bill said still holding Dipper’s hand down.

Dipper could feel the heat of the runes already starting to seep through the cold wash cloth, he’d have to wet it again soon. He could also feel Bill’s chest rise and fall with every deep breath he took.

“I’m sorry this didn’t work Bill,” Dipper said after they’d been sitting in silence for a little while.

“Yeah, me too,” Bill sighed. “But it just made so much sense, right? Still though I shouldn’t have let my hopes get so high.”

“Do you think you’re going to be all right?” Dipper asked as he rewet the cloth and placed it on Bill’s chest again. As he did so he noticed that the runes weren’t glowing quite as brightly as they had earlier.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. The pain and heat are already starting to fade. So I’ll probably be back to normal in an hour or two,” Bill said as he once more placed his hands over Dipper’s pressing it down.

Over the next hour or so the runes slowly lost their heat and faded back to their usual deep black. Dipper sat with Bill the whole time. They chatted about various things but avoided talking about anything related to what had just happened.

“Help me stand Pine Tree,” Bill said.

Dipper took his hand and pulled him to his feet. He seemed to sway a little but quickly steadied himself by holding onto Dipper’s arm.

“You okay?” Dipper asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Bill said before leading Dipper back to the living room, leaning on his arm the whole time.

When Dipper sat on the couch Bill lay down next to him resting his head on Dipper’s lap.

“What do you want to watch?” Dipper asked.

“I don’t care,” Bill said as he pulled Dipper’s arm down so that it rested on his chest while he held Dipper’s hand in his.

Bill hadn’t bothered to put his shirt back on so Dipper could feel that the runes on Bill’s chest were still a bit warm, but nowhere near as hot as they had been earlier.

Using his free hand Dipper picked up the remote and began flipping channels looking for something to watch, preferably something that wouldn’t remind Bill of their failed attempt at an exorcism. Long before he settled on anything though he felt Bill’s breathing deepen as he fell asleep.

About an hour or so later Dipper heard the front door open as Mabel came in. “Hey guys,” she started saying loudly but quickly lowered her voice when she saw that Bill was sleeping.

“Hey Mabel, what’s up?” Dipper made sure to keep his voice low.

“Not much, but why isn’t Bill wearing a shirt?”

Dipper briefly told her about their failed attempt at performing an exorcism and how it had made the runes on Bill’s chest hot.

“Oh, poor Bill,” she said once he had finished. “Is he going to be okay?”

“I hope so,” Dipper said.

Underneath Dipper’s arm the runes on Bill’s chest now felt cold. He wondered why that was but then remembered that Bill had said that they were normally cold. Which probably meant that they were finally back to normal.

“I hope so too,” Mabel sighed. “I guess I’ll go start supper then, you can stay out here with Bill.”

A short time later when Mabel came back out to tell Dipper food was done Bill finally woke up.

“Hey Shooting Star,” he said as he sat up and stretched.

“Hey Bill, you feeling all right?” Mabel asked.

“Yeah I’m fine. I take it Pine Tree told you about what we tried to do earlier and how it ended,” Bill said.

“Yeah he told me, and I’m sorry it didn’t work,” she replied.

“It’s fine Shooting Star, don’t worry about it. That goes for you too Pine Tree, don’t be all concerned and sad about it, okay? Just pretend it didn’t happen,” Bill said. “Now I’m going to go put a shirt on and when I get back we’re all going to pretend it didn’t happen, all right?”

“Does he really just want us to ignore that it happened?” Mabel asked once he was gone.

“Yeah, I don’t think he wants to think about it, and us acting concerned for him would remind him of it,” Dipper said.

“So he just pushes those kind of thoughts out of his head? That can’t be healthy, surely he should find some better way to deal with his problems,” Mabel replied.

“I don’t think he _can_ deal with his problems any other way. It’s not like he can do anything to fix them,” Dipper said. “So let’s just not bring any of that stuff up.”


	23. Rune Magic

That night when they crawled into bed together Dipper pulled Bill close. “I’m still sorry that the exorcism didn’t work,” he said.

“I thought I told you not to worry about it,” Bill replied.

“I know, it’s just I wish there was something I could do to help you,” Dipper sighed. “Do you think maybe that some of those other magic languages you told me about might be able to free you somehow?”

“I doubt it, very few of them have anything to do with demons at all. And the ones that do, have to do with demons vastly different from what I am,” Bill replied.

With a sigh Dipper slipped his hand up Bill’s shirt, not for any sexual reason but because he wanted to feel the runes on Bill’s chest again. They were of course cold, not freezing or anything but he didn’t think they could be comfortable.

“Have they always been this cold?” he asked.

“Yeah, but you’re really warm. Which is one of the reasons why I like cuddling with you so much,” Bill replied pushing Dipper’s hand up further so that it covered more of the runes.

As they lay there like that Dipper tried to think of other ways that they could possibly remove the runes. But couldn’t come up with anything except maybe if he were somehow able to learn how to use the rune magic too.

“Bill how exactly did the necromancer perform his magic?” Dipper could fell Bill tense up at the mention of the necromancer. “Like what did he do when he was casting it?”

“He’d draw the runes in the air with his fingers,” Bill replied. “Why?”

“It’s just I was thinking maybe I could try to learn the rune magic based off what little you know and use it to free you.”

“Hmmm, I never thought of that before. I don’t really think I know enough to teach you, but I guess it’s still worth a try,” Bill didn’t sound very hopeful.

“You wanna try sometime tomorrow?” Dipper asked.

“Yeah, sure we can try it tomorrow.”

 

The next day Bill slept longer than he usually did. He hadn’t slept in that late since he had stopped having nightmares. Dipper guessed it was probably because he was still worn out from the failed exorcism yesterday and was careful not to wake him.

“Hey Bill, how you feeling?” Dipper asked once he did finally get up at around noon.

“Okay, I guess,” Bill shrugged. “You still want to try using the rune magic?”

“Of course I do,” Dipper said standing up.

“After breakfast then,” Bill said before heading into the kitchen.

Dipper got the impression that Bill didn’t have any hope that this would work. If he had thought it might work he would’ve been eager to try it right away, like he had yesterday with the exorcism. Dipper was determined to try his best though.

So after breakfast they sat across from each other at the kitchen table. Bill had pulled out a piece of paper and had written down some runes on it.

“Okay, all these strings of runes either have to do with trapping me or pulling me out,” Bill said sliding the paper across the table towards Dipper. “The circled one at the top there is what he used to partially pull me out so that he could… you know.”

“Okay so what I do?” Dipper asked as he looked down at it.

“Draw those runes in the air in front of me with your finger, exactly like how they are on the paper,” Bill replied.

Dipper tried but he was pretty sure he didn’t do it right. So he tried a few more times but never got any result.

“Try putting magic into them,” Bill suggested.

Dipper tried but had no idea how to do that. “I don’t think I know how to use magic,” he said.

“Sure you do, you did it yesterday when you tried to exorcise me. And you’ve done it lots of other times with the journal and other things you’ve found around Gravity Falls,” Bill said. “In theory you should be able to do this kind of magic too. The necromancer was human so it’s definitely learnable by humans. But the problem is these spells are probably high level and take a lot of skill and energy to cast. You don’t even know the basics so chances of you being able to do this successfully are low.”

“Ugh, you’re right,” Dipper said. “Do you think if I could somehow learn it from the ground up that I’d be able to free you?”

“Yeah, I think so. You definitely have an aptitude for magic, so given the correct resources you could probably learn how to do it,” Bill replied.

“I have an aptitude for magic? Really?” Dipper asked.

“Yep, that’s part of what makes you so fascinating to me,” Bill said grinning.

Dipper tried not to blush. “What about you? Can you use this type of magic?” he asked.

“Nope, my energy is bound up so tightly I can’t even use weak magic,” Bill replied. “In fact Pine Tree right now you’re significantly more powerful than me despite the fact that you’re untrained.”

“If I’m so naturally good at magic then surely I should be able to find a way to help you, right?”

“Hmmm, I doubt it. I don’t know much about this rune magic but it’s obviously pretty powerful stuff and probably the only way to undo it is by using the rune magic itself. And chances of you ever being able to learn it are slim at best. The necromancer has disappeared back to wherever it is that he came from and he’s not likely to ever come back. And I have absolutely no idea where he learned it from in the first place so we’re kind of stuck,” Bill replied.

“If it wasn’t you that was trapped like that do you think you’d be able to break it?” Dipper asked.

“I’m not sure, but probably,” Bill replied.

“What if we could somehow find a way into your dimension and ask one of your friends to free you?”

“There are a few problems with that idea. First off it’s impossible to get there without building a portal. And building a portal would take a lot work and be very expensive. We don’t have nearly enough money or even the space necessary to do it, and Sixer would never let us fix his up. Second most of them wouldn’t want to help me, and the ones who might try aren’t very powerful so they might not be capable of doing it. Lastly the necromancer said he wanted to kill everyone in my dimension and I don’t doubt he’s capable of doing so. So even if by some miracle we were able to get there they might all already be dead by the time we get there,” Bill said.

“But there has to be _something_ we can do,” Frustrated Dipper tried drawing the runes in the air a couple more times, but of course nothing happened.

“There’s nothing you or I can do about it Pine Tree. So try not to let it bother you too much, okay?” Bill said. “Just do like I do and never think about it.”

“But…”

After seeing Bill get so excited yesterday only to have his hopes crushed Dipper couldn't help but feel awful about it. He just wanted to help Bill, but sadly that seemed to be something he would never be able do.

“It’s fine Pine Tree, I can deal with it. I _have_ to deal with it, it’s not like I have any other option,” Bill said. “Besides it’s not all bad, I guess. At least I’m not chained up and being tortured on a daily basis anymore.”

Dipper got up and went around the table to hug Bill. As he did so Bill leaned back against him a little.

“I also have you to make this all seem not as bad,” Bill said titling his head back to look up at Dipper.

Dipper sighed and kissed him on the forehead. “I wish I could do more. I care about you, more than anyone else in the world. And I know being trapped like that must be awful. And I just wish I could actually help you somehow.”

“I care about you too Pine Tree, more than anyone or anything else in existence,” Bill said as he stood up and wrapped his arms around Dipper's neck. “So let’s just go back to not ever thinking about any of the bad stuff, okay?”

“Okay I guess,” Dipper sighed.

“Stop being so depressed about it Pine Tree. I’ve… accepted my fate and now’s it’s time to move on,” Bill said with a resigned sigh. “So instead of sitting around moping about stuff we can’t change let’s find something exciting to do.”

“Like what?” Dipper asked.

Bill thought a few seconds before replying, “I don’t know, but we can start with taking a shower.”

“Together?” Dipper asked.

“Yes together,” Bill replied with a grin. “It’ll be fun and it should help us get our minds off things.”


	24. Summerween Party

A few days later when Mabel came over she said, “Summerween is two days from now. And guess what, the Mystery Shack is having a party and we all have to go.”

“A party? Yeah, we should go Pine Tree,” Bill said.

“But Ford’s going to be there and like what if everyone somehow finds out who you are?” Dipper asked.

“No one’s going to figure out who I am, I look nothing like my real self so as long as we don’t tell them they’ll never know,” Bill said. “But you will have to remove the barrier so I can get in.”

“What barrier?” Mabel asked.

“The one Sixer made with that unicorn hair you and your friends got for him.”

“Oh I remember that, those unicorns were assholes,” Mabel said. “So how do we remove the barrier?”

“Just cut the unicorn hair lining the Shack and it should come down,” Bill replied.

“All right I can do that,” Mabel said. “Anyway I’m going costume shopping with Pacifica tomorrow if you guys want to come.”

“Nah,” Dipper wasn’t into dressing up for Halloween or Summerween anymore like Mabel still was. “Unless Bill wants to.”

“There’s no way that the costume shop would have anything I would want to dress as,” Bill said.

“Bill are you _really_ sure you going down to the Shack is a good idea?” Dipper asked.

“It’ll be fine Pine Tree, they won’t suspect a thing I promise,” Bill assured him. “Besides it’s a party it’ll be fun and I don’t want to miss out on all the fun.”

 

On the day of Summerween Mable and Pacifica came by in one of the Northwest’s limos to drive them down to the Mystery Shack. Both of them were wearing Summerween costumes. Pacifica was dressed as a princess complete with diamond encrusted tiara, while Mabel wore a hodgepodge of a bunch of different costumes at once. It looked like she going for a cat warrior princess vibe.

“Hey guys, how do like my costume?” Mabel cheerily asked as Dipper and Bill climbed into the limo to sit across from her and Pacifica. “They had a knight costume and a princess costume right next to each other and I couldn’t decide which one I wanted more so I went with both. And then Pacifica suggested I should get cat ears too.”

“I was joking by the way,” Pacifica clarified. “But she did it anyway.”

“It’s certainly more exciting than Northwest’s costume,” Bill said.

“At least I have a costume, and not wearing the same thing I do every day,” Pacifica replied. “By the way Bill did you sew that pattern onto every shirt you own? Because every time I see you always have that brick pattern and eye on your shirt.”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I?” Bill responded.

“Because it’s a boring pattern, especially if you put it on every shirt you own. Like don’t you ever get tired of it?” Pacifica asked.

“No, I like way it looks,” Bill said.

“Whatever you can be weird if you want to be weird,” Pacifica said.

For the rest of the ride down to the Mystery Shack they chatted about inconsequential topics. When they got there they all piled out of the limo.

“I’ll go take care of that barrier thing now,” Mabel whispered to them before discreetly slipping off towards the Shack. Pacifica followed a few steps behind her.

While they were waiting for them to come back Wendy approached them. “Oh hey Dipper, how’s it going?” she said “This must be your roommate right?”

“Yeah, this is Bill,” he said.

“And you’re Wendy right? Uh… Dipper told me a lot about you,” Bill responded shaking Wendy’s proffered hand.

Dipper realized that not only was this the first time he ever heard Bill call anyone by their real name but it was also the first time he used Dipper’s real name too. Of course he only did it so that Wendy wouldn’t catch on to who he really was, but still.

“You’re shorter than I expected, and I feel like I’ve seen that design on your shirt somewhere before,” Wendy said squinting at it.

Dipper suddenly realized that Bill’s shirt was a major clue about who he really was and no doubt if Ford saw it he would pick up on it immediately. Coming here probably wasn’t such a good idea after all.

“It’s uh, supposed to resemble the all-seeing eye on the pyramid,” Bill lied.

“Ah, so like the Illuminate?” Wendy asked. “That’s cool.”

“Yeah… like the Illuminate,” Bill said. Dipper thought he picked up the barest hint of distaste in his voice.

“Oh hey Wendy, what’s up?” Mabel asked suddenly as she and Pacifica came up behind them. “I see you’ve met Dipper’s boyfriend.”

“Oh wow Dipper, is he really you’re boyfriend?” Wendy asked.

“Yes, we’re dating,” Bill said proudly as he took hold of Dipper’s hand.

“Well good for you then,” Wendy replied. “But is that why you never brought him down to the Shack though? ‘Cause you thought we’d disapprove.”

“No, we’ve only been a thing for like a month now,” Dipper replied. “I never brought him down because he was always too busy doing other stuff.”

“Wendy why aren’t you wearing a Summerween costume?” Pacifica asked.

“I’m not super into the whole costume thing,” Wendy shrugged. “Besides I’m kind of in charge right now while Stan is too busy trying to both scare and sell stuff to the party goers.”

“Speaking of Gruncle Stan, he hasn’t met Bill yet. So we should go say ‘hi’,” Mabel said cheerily before leading the way over to where Stan was indeed trying to sell stuff to a crowd of people. “Hey Gruncle Stan, you should meet Dipper’s boyfriend.”

“’Boyfriend’?” shocked Stan turned to face them.

“Yeah, this is Bill, Dipper and him are dating,” Mabel replied.

“Really? Dipper I didn’t know you were uh… gay,” Stan said.

“I’m not gay I’m bi, it’s different. And there’s nothing wrong with it,” Dipper said.

“Didn’t say there was, just thought you were into chicks, that’s all,” Stan replied with a shrug.

“You’re Stanley Pines, you own this place right?” Bill said.

“Yeah I own this place.” Stan said.

“You should meet Soos and Melody too," Mabel said.

“Technically I’ve already met him,” Bill muttered quietly under his breath as he, Dipper and Pacifica followed after Mabel.

They eventually found Soos and Melody at the DJ table. Soos and Melody had gotten married a couple years ago when Melody had moved in with him and his grandmother.

“’Sup dudes?” Soos greeted them as they approached.

“Hey Soos,” Dipper said.

“Who’s your friend? I feel like I’ve seen his shirt before somewhere, but I don’t know where,” Soos said as he closely scrutinized Bill’s shirt.

“This is Bill, he’s my uh… boyfriend,” Dipper realized that was the first time he’d ever openly referred to Bill as his boyfriend.

“It’s very nice to meet you Bill,” Melody said with a smile as she shook his hand.

“That eye though, I feel like I’ve seen that eye somewhere before,” Soos said still looking confusedly at Bill’s shirt. “And I feel like it’s important that I remember, but I can’t.”

“Oh, I’m sure it’s nothing,” Mabel waved off his Soos’ concern.

“You’re right, if it’s really that important I’m sure it’ll come back to me eventually,” Soos said with a shrug.

While everyone else began chatting about something Dipper pulled Bill to one side. “Okay, we’re really going to have to do something about that shirt,” he said.

“It’ll be fine Pine Tree, come on. Everyone’s already seen it by now, so what’s the point?” Bill said.

“Ford hasn’t seen it yet and the moment he does he’ll immediately suspect you,” Dipper replied. “Oh, coming here was a mistake. Why did we do this? They’re going to find out now and who knows what they’re going to do about it.”

“Calm down Pine Tree, really it’ll be fine I promise,” Bill said. “But if it makes you feel any better I can put on another shirt over it.”

“Yes, that would make me feel better,” Dipper said wishing they had done that to start with.

Dipper led Bill over to where the Shack sold tacky t-shirts he picked the yellowish one there and handed it to Bill. With a resigned sigh Bill pulled it on over his head “Happy?” he said.

“Yeah, but are you sure you don’t just want to swap shirts or something?” Dipper asked.

“I can’t wear a shirt that doesn’t have long sleeves,” Bill replied.

“Why not?”

In response Bill pulled back one of his sleeves a little revealing the scar left by being chained up for a year.

“Oh yeah, I kind of forgot about that,” Dipper winced.

“It’s fine,” Bill shrugged as he fixed his sleeve.

“You must be Dipper’s mysterious roommate that no one ever wants to talk about,” Ford said as he suddenly came up behind them.

“Oh hey, Si-Stanford,” Bill stammered.

“How’d you know my name?” Ford asked.

“Uh, Dipper told me about you and his other great uncle Stanley, who I’ve already met, so that must mean you’re Stanford.” Bill said.

“Yeah, but no one’s ever even given me your name before,” Ford said.

“I’m uh, Bill.”

Ford’s eyes narrowed at them name. “Dipper can I talk to you for a minute?”

“Yeah sure, about what?” Dipper asked as Ford led him a short distance away.

“Your friend, doesn’t he seem a bit odd to you? Doesn’t his name remind you of some one? Ford said.

Uh oh, this wasn’t good. But how could Ford already suspect something? Bill had covered up the eye on his shirt after all.

“Yeah, but Bill is a common enough name. It’s just a really weird coincidence.”

“I guess that’s probably it. Be careful though, someone took down the barrier around the Shack a little while ago. But with all these people here for the party I have no idea who it could be. But Bill Cipher is definitely up to his old tricks again,” Ford said.

Dipper hadn’t considered whether or not Ford would notice the barrier coming down but apparently he had. If he thought Ford would pick up on it he would have insisted that Bill didn’t come, but it was too late now.

“That’s not good, I’ll uh, keep an eye out for anyone suspicious,” Dipper said.

“How long has it been since he’s appeared to you anyway?” Ford asked.

“Uh, I actually haven’t seen him in ages. I was starting to think that maybe he’d given up or something,” Dipper lied.

“Well clearly he hasn’t, and this time he seems to have normal people working for him too. Otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to take the barrier down. Just be careful who you trust Dipper and be sure to keep an eye out for anyone strange.”

“Yeah of course I’ll be careful Gruncle Ford, I’ve dealt with Bill Cipher before remember? I know what to look for.”

“Good, I’ll go warn Mabel too,” Ford patted Dipper on the shoulder before heading off.

“I take it from the look on your face that Sixer suspects something?” Bill asked when Dipper returned to his side.

“Yeah, he noticed that the barrier is down now, so he thinks you’re up to one of your games again. And I’m pretty sure he suspects you so be careful around him.”

“Of course I’ll be careful Pine Tree, don’t worry about it,” Bill said nonchalantly. “He’ll be looking for me in all the wrong places, he’ll never be able find me.”

“I know, it’s just I don’t think he’d take it very well if he ever found out about us. And well I have no idea what he’d actually do if he ever did find out, so promise me you’ll be extra careful tonight.”

“Yes Pine Tree, I promise I’ll be super-duper careful tonight. Happy?”

“Yes, but also be careful about calling me ‘Pine Tree’ in case someone who knows about you overhears or something,” Dipper said.

“All right _Dipper_ , I’ll be careful so stop acting so worried okay?” Bill said. “Besides I should be the one who’s worried, not you. If Sixer, or I mean Stanford, finds out about me he’d just be angry at you but he would probably try to destroy me.”

“Wait, would he really do that?” Dipper asked.

“Well he’s certainly done a lot research on it over the years. He’s never found anything, at least not that I know of. But because I’m like this it would probably be much easier to do. Or failing to find a way to get rid of me for good he might try to find a way to ensure I stay like this forever. So yeah, I’ll be careful around him.”

“I would _never_ let him do anything like that to you,” Dipper promised.

“I know,” Bill said. “Now let’s find something exciting to do.”


	25. Forever

“Let’s go down to the basement,” Bill said.                                                   

“We can’t, if Ford catches us down there we’d be in trouble,” Dipper said.

“He won’t catch us down there, he’s up here looking for suspicious people,” Bill said.

“I still don’t know though,” Dipper said.

“Come one Pine Tree it’ll be fun, and only for a couple minutes. I just want to have a quick look around, it’s been years since I was able to see into the Shack clearly because of that stupid barrier Sixer put up,” Bill said.

“How effective was the barrier anyway?”

“I could see into it but it was hazy, and I couldn’t read anyone’s mind in it, so it worked. But I still could’ve broken it if I had wanted to, even from my dimension, but that would’ve taken too much work,” Bill answered. “Now come one let’s go explore.”

“Oh, okay I guess,” Dipper conceded as he allowed Bill to lead him over to the vending machine. “But we have be fast.”

“Yeah, I know,” Bill said as he put in the code and they quickly slipped inside.

When they reached the bottom of the stairs they were in the oh so familiar basement. Dipper used to spend a lot of time down here helping Ford in his research on the supernatural. He actually couldn’t remember very many times when he had been down here without Ford. The rusting remains of the universe portal still stood in the wide open space in the back. Ford had wanted to take it all down but it had proven to be too much work so it still stood today.

Bill immediately made his way over to Ford’s desk and began looking through the various gadgets and other odd things piled on and around it. Dipper nervously watched the stairs fearing that someone would come down and see them. Even after all these years the basement was still kept a secret and Ford would probably not be very happy if he caught Bill down here looking through all his stuff.

“Hey Pine Tree, what’s this?” Bill asked pulling out a small chest from underneath Ford’s desk.

“Um, I think that’s where Ford put the memory erasing gun,” Dipper said.

“’Memory erasing gun’ huh?” Bill’s voice was barely audible as he opened the chest revealing that it was indeed the memory erasing gun. He took it out and stared thoughtfully down at it. “Yeah, I remember this thing. Do you think it still works?”

“I don’t see why it wouldn’t.” Starting to feel a little concerned Dipper walked over and sat down next to where Bill was sitting on the floor while he still stared at the gun in his hands. “You’re not thinking about using it, are you?”

Bill stared down at it for a while longer before sighing and placing it back in its case. “No, as much as I would like to forget some things it wouldn’t change that they happened. It also wouldn’t fix anything so there’s no point,” he said as he closed the chest and pushed it back under the desk.

Dipper breathed a sigh of relief, he didn’t trust the memory erasing gun after he had found out what had happened to Fiddleford when he had used it a bunch. Not that he would’ve stopped Bill if he had wanted to forget what the necromancer had done to him.

“Besides, to truly end the pain I would have to forget my entire former existence, which would just drive me insane,” Bill said.

“Yeah, I’m really glad you’re not going to do that then,” Dipper said. “Anyway, we should probably head back upstairs now, before anyone notices that we’re gone.”

“Just five more minutes,” Bill said starting to look through Ford’s stuff again. “Ah Pine Tree remember these?” Bill said pulling out the journals from where Ford had placed them in one of the desk drawers.

“Yeah,” Dipper said picking one up and started to flip through it. He of course had read all three multiple times by now and could easily find whatever page he wanted. He flipped to the page detailing how to summon Bill Cipher.

“Would anything happen if I tried to summon you?” he asked.

“I don’t think so, but you can try it,” Bill replied.

“Don’t I need like candles or something?” Dipper asked remembering when he had watched Gideon summon Bill all those years ago.

“No, just read the incantation. The candles were only ever there for dramatic effect,” Bill said.

Finding that a little amusing Dipper read the incantation. “Did it do anything?” he asked once he had finished.

“I felt it, so there’s that.” Bill sighed as he looked down at the journal in his own hands. It was open to the page warning about him. “Remember this Pine Tree? When I used to be something and everyone, including myself, thought that I was all-powerful. It feels like that was such a long time ago, but really it’s only been a year and a half.”

“I’m sorry,” Dipper said taking hold of Bill’s hand.

“Pine Tree, if by some far off distant miracle I ever do get my old form back, would you still want to be like this with me?”

“Like what?”

“This,” Bill replied as he leaned over and kissed Dipper.

A few seconds later as Bill pulled away Dipper found himself leaning forward wanting more, but Bill had pulled back completely. “Yeah, if you ever get your old form back I think I would still want to be like this with you,” he said.

“It’s decided then, if by some chance we ever find a way to free me, I’ll make you immortal so that I can be with you forever,” Bill said.

“You can make me immortal?”

“Not immortal exactly, but I can make you hard to kill and stop you from ageing.”

“And you want to be with me forever?” Dipper asked blushing.

“Yeah, I told you that this type of relationship is forever for my kind,” Bill replied.

Dipper leaned forward to kiss Bill again. “I want to be with you forever too,” he whispered.

He felt like he should be afraid of that kind of commitment. They had only been together for a little over a month after all. But he wasn’t afraid or even nervous, he _did_ want to be with Bill forever and he would gladly admit that, even it was only to himself and Bill.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From here on out I'll probably only be able to update this once a week on Tuesday nights because I've started another Undertale fanfic. As a result I'm not working on this as much as I used to so updates will be slower but I'm still going to finish it even if it ends up sucking.


	26. Letting the Cat Out of the Bag

_***Mabel Pines***_

Mabel wondered where Dipper and Bill had run off to. They seemed to have disappeared sometime when she’d been chatting with Soos and Melody. She was about to go looking for them when she saw Ford coming up to her.

“Hey Gruncle Ford, what’s up?” she greeted him when he reached her.

“I need to talk to you about something,” he said.

“Sure what is it?” she said as she followed him to a spot where people wouldn’t be likely to overhear their conversation.

“You remember Bill Cipher right? And the barrier we put up to keep him away from the Shack. Well he’s back and up to something, somebody here took the barrier down a little while ago,” Ford said.

Mabel knew Dipper and Bill wouldn’t be happy with her if she told Ford about Bill. And Ford wouldn’t be happy that she and Dipper were being so friendly with Bill. But she also felt like if Ford knew what happened to Bill he would come to understand and it wouldn’t have to be a secret anymore. And if it wasn’t a secret anymore Bill could come down to the Shack all the time without fear of being found out. And Ford, Stan and everyone else would come to see that Bill wasn’t really a bad guy and they could all be friends.

“I took down the barrier,” she said.

Ford looked shocked. “Why would you do that?” he asked.

“Because Bill isn’t a bad guy,” she said. “You see what happened was…”

“What do you mean Bill isn’t a bad guy?” Ford angrily cut her off.

“He’s not, he’s actually a really nice guy,” Mabel said. “In fact you should go talk to him, he’s probably with Dipper.”

“You mean Dipper’s roommate Bill is actually Bill Cipher?” Ford sounded furious, not really that surprising. But once he got to know Bill a little more and learned what had happened he would no doubt be okay with it… hopefully.

“Yes, but before you get too mad just let me say the Bill has changed and he’s a good guy now,” Mabel said.

“I’ll talk with you about this later,” Ford said before storming off probably to find Dipper and Bill.

Mabel hoped Dipper wouldn’t be too terribly mad at her for telling. He would see once everyone was friends and there weren’t any more secrets being kept from people that it was actually a good thing that she told. But she figured that she should probably call and warn them that Ford was looking for them and wasn’t exactly happy right now.

_***_

Dipper and Bill were still passionately making out in the basement. They had moved off the floor to sit on the big office chair down there. Dipper had his arms around Bill who was sitting on his lap as they kissed.

Dipper knew they would have to stop soon. Partly because he didn’t want them to be caught down there but also because this was not a very good time or place to do anything beyond cuddling and making out. He wanted to though and he knew if they kept this up they most likely would. So they would have to stop soon, but not quite yet.

Suddenly his phone starting ringing.

“That’s Shooting Star’s ringtone right?” Bill asked as he pulled away a little.

“Yeah but…” Dipper didn’t want to answer it right now.

“If Shooting Star’s calling it might be important,” Bill said as he got off Dipper’s lap.

“Ugh fine, you’re right,” Dipper sighed as he pulled out his phone and accepted the call. “Hey Mabel, what’s up?”

“Hey Dip, how’s it going?” she said.

“Fine, can I ask why you called?”

“Well you see, I kinda did something that you’re probably not going to be very happy about,” Mabel said. “But I think that once everything settles down that you’ll see that it’ll be okay.”

“What did you do?” Dipper asked.

“I kind of, sort of, maybe told Gruncle Ford about Bill.”

“You did what?!”

“I told Gruncle Ford about Bill and now he’s looking for you two and he’s not very happy,” Mabel said hurriedly.

“Ugh, oh my god Mabel, why would you do that?” Dipper couldn’t believe Mabel had actually done that. After everything that he’d done to keep it a secret, Ford now knew and was looking for them. What Ford would do when he found them who even knew, but it would no doubt not be anything good.

“I’m sorry Dipper, but I think that once you guys explain what happened he’ll understand and in time he’ll see that Bill isn’t a bad guy,” Mabel said.

“Goddammit Mabel, I told you not to tell him. Gruncle Ford is probably one of the absolute worst people you could’ve told. He’s not just going to understand, and I highly doubt he’d be willing to give Bill even a small chance.”

“No, I think that once everyone knows and understands then we can all be friends. And you guys won’t have to worry about trying to keep it a secret anymore,” she replied.

“Ugh, I get that you had good intentions but still…” Dipper hung up before he could say anything that might hurt his sister’s feelings.

“So I take it Sixer knows and is probably looking for us,” Bill said.

“Yeah, Mabel told him,” Dipper sighed. “And now we’re going to have to deal with Ford being mad at us and who knows what else.”

“Well that means I don’t have to cover up my shirt anymore,” Bill said slipping the extra t-shirt off revealing the eye on his shirt once more. “And now I guess we wait for him to come find us.”

“You don’t sound too terribly upset about this,” Dipper pointed out.

“I’m not happy about it by any means, but I am curious to see what his reaction to our relationship will be. Besides I know you won’t let him do anything bad to me,” Bill said.

“How long do you think it’ll be before he finds us down here?”

“Probably not long,” Bill answered. “We’re probably going to have to tell him that I’m trapped like this. Or else he would think that I’m trying to take over the world and he would have to try to find a way to stop me.”

“When he does find us can you do me a favor and try not to provoke him?” Dipper asked.

“Of course, why would I ever provoke him?”

“Because you’re you, and I know how you like to make people angry, especially people you don’t like.”

“Okay I promise I’ll try not to make him too terribly mad,” Bill promised with a grin.

Just as Dipper was about to say something else he heard the unmistakable sound of someone coming down the basement stairs. As the footsteps reached the bottom Dipper saw that it was Ford.

“Hey Sixer, looks like the gig is up,” Bill said.

“So it’s true,” Ford said angrily striding towards them. “You really are Bill Cipher.”

“Yep, sure am,” Bill said grinning.

“What’s your plan Cipher? What are you doing tricking my niece and nephew like this?”

“I don’t have a plan. And I’m not tricking anyone,” Bill replied.

“Gruncle Ford, Bill really isn’t all that bad,” Dipper said.

“Dipper how can you of all people possibly believe his lies? Mabel I can see sure, she always wants to see the good in people. But you Dipper, you should know better,” Ford said pointing an accusing finger at Dipper.

“He’s not lying about anything. Can you just give us a chance to explain,” Dipper pleaded.

“Yeah, I would like an explanation as to why you seem to suddenly be friends with an evil demon who’s trying to take over the world,” Ford said.

“I object to the word ‘evil’. If you think I’m evil then you clearly have never seen anyone or anything that is actually evil,” Bill said. “And as for Pine Tree and I being friends, we’re not. We’re _much_ more than just friends.”

“Bill is now really the time to tell him about that?” Dipper asked.

“Of course now is the time to tell him,” Bill said grinning mischievously.

“What do you mean by ‘more than just friends’? You can’t possibly mean…” Ford sound extremely stressed and angry.

“Yeah me and Bill are kinda… dating, I guess you would say,” Dipper said trying not to blush.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me. You have _got_ to be kidding me Dipper. There is _no_ way you’re actually dating _him_. He’s Bill Cipher, in case you’ve forgotten he wants to take over the world and you’re falling right in with whatever plan he has this time.”

“No, Pine Tree and I are lovers,” Bill said grinning as he side stepped towards Dipper and hugged his arm. “And as for wanting to take over the world, I don’t and I never did. I could have if I wanted to but I never did.”

“Dipper I need to talk to you. _Alone_.” Ford said glaring daggers at Bill.

“Very well then,” Bill said before moving a short distance off, far enough away to be just out of earshot if they talked quietly.

“Dipper you can’t be serious, you can’t really be dating Bill Cipher, can you?” Ford said turning them so that Bill wouldn’t even be able to see their mouths as they talked.

“Yes, I’m uh dating him,” Dipper said.

“Why?”

“Because he’s important to me and I care about him,” Dipper said.

“He’s going to betray you Dipper. And when whatever his evil plan is comes to fruition and he takes over the world you’ll realize just how much of a fool you’re being,” Ford said.

“No, he won’t betray me and he won’t take over the world either. I trust him,” Dipper replied.

“I trusted him once too and you know where that got me. He almost ended up destroying the world because of it,” Ford said.

“Of course you trusted me Sixer,” Bill had silently walked up behind them. “I told you that you were special so you believed every little thing I told you. It was actually kind of funny.”

“And now you’re lying to Dipper, and like a fool he believes you,” Ford said as he angrily turned towards Bill.

“No, I would never lie to Pine Tree like that. He’s too important to me for me to ever do anything like that to him,” Bill said giving Dipper a fond look.

“Yeah right, he’s only important to you while he’s useful for whatever you’re plan is. You’re going to betray him the moment you’re done with him.”

“No, I already told you I don’t have any plans for anything. And I would _never_ betray Pine Tree. I care about him way too much to ever be able to betray him,” Bill said smiling as he walked over and took Dipper’s hand.

“Yeah, like any sane person would ever believe that,” Ford sneered.

“Please Gruncle Ford can you give Bill a chance,” Dipper pleaded. “I promise he’s not as bad as you think he is.”

“No, can’t you see he’s lying to you. Why would you _ever_ think that something like him could care for anyone? He’s a demon, he’s using you for something and you’re just going to sit back and let him,” Ford said.

“No, please Gruncle Ford he’s not bad I promise,” Dipper tried pleading again.

Bill sighed, “Tell him Pine Tree.”

“But…” Dipper began.

“I don’t like talking about it, and him knowing is the only way he would ever believe that I’m not trying to do anything bad like take over the world or whatever.”

“Okay then,” Dipper said. “Gruncle Ford you see what happened was that Bill got captured by a necromancer who trapped him in that body. He can’t get out, so even if he wanted to take over the world or something he can’t.”

“Is this true? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a magic that can do that,” Ford said disbelievingly.

With a sigh Bill pulled his shirt up revealing the runes on his chest. “It’s true, and no you wouldn’t have heard of it. And later when you inevitably try to find something on these runes you won’t. Pine Tree and I have already looked everywhere for information on them and we never found anything.”

Ford was staring fascinated at the runes on Bill’s chest. He even bent over to get a better look at them as he copied them down on a sheet of paper. “I’ve never seen anything quite like this before,” he mumbled as he slowly reached out a hand as if to touch them.

But before Ford could actually touch him Bill flinched back letting his shirt fall over the runes again. “Don’t touch me,” he almost growled as he took a large step back.

Bill seemed quite distressed at the thought of Ford touching him so Dipper walked over to him, “You okay?” he whispered as he put his hands on Bill’s shoulder.

“Yeah I’m fine, I just don’t like the thought of anyone other than you and myself touching them.”

Dipper wondered why that would be but figured there probably wasn’t any real reason for it. And now probably was not the time to ask.

“So you’re powerless right now?” Ford interrupted them.

“Yeah,” Bill said crossing his arms.

“Dipper I need to talk to you again,” Ford said.

With a sigh Dipper went off with Ford a short distance away again.

“If he really is powerless now’s our time to find a way to get rid of him for good,” Ford whispered.

“No, absolutely _not_ ,” Dipper was shocked by the anger in his voice but he figured it was justified, Bill had been through enough already without adding this to it.

Ford also seemed surprised by Dipper’s anger. “Dipper are you crazy, if he ever gets free of that body he’ll betray you in an instant. We have to make sure he’s not a threat anymore, if we can’t find a way to kill him we have to find a way to ensure he stays like that forever.”

“No, don’t you ever even _try_ to hurt him.”

“Dipper why would you ever want to protect him? If he ever gets free he’ll dumb you immediately and go back to trying to take over the world.”

“No he won’t,” Dipper said with conviction. “And now we’re going to leave and we’re not coming back so you just leave us alone, all right?”

Dipper walked over to Bill took his hand and began leading him towards the basement steps.

“Hmmm, my hero,” Bill whispered to him while giving his hand a slight squeeze.


	27. Now Everybody Knows

As they were about to start heading up the basement stairs the door up top opened letting in Mabel. “Hey, we finally found you guys,” she said cheerily.

Dipper was about to return her greeting when he saw that she was followed by Stan, Soos, and Wendy. Meaning she had probably told them about Bill too.

“I’m so not in the mood for this,” Bill muttered quietly before taking a deep breath and smiling at the group as the descended the stairs. “I take it Shooting Star here has told you all about my not so little secret.”

“Yeah, she told us all right,” Stan said angrily.

“Well now that everybody knows you guys don’t have worry about keeping it secret anymore and we can all be friends,” Mabel said.

“Mabel why?” Dipper asked. They just been about to leave and now he had to deal with Stan’s anger too.

“I told you, so we can all be friends and they’ll see Bill really isn’t that bad a guy,” she replied.

“But isn’t Bill the triangle guy who tried to steal the safe code from Stan’s mind?” Soos asked.

“Yep, that was me,” Bill said. “I could’ve stolen it numerous other ways but that one seemed like the most fun at the time.”

“You think messing around in my mind is some kind of game?” Stan glared angrily at Bill.

“Yes, it was all just a game,” Bill replied grinning. “Pretty much everything I did back then was just part of a game.”

“Really? So taking over the world is only some kind of game to you?” Ford asked as he strode up behind them.

“Well actually I wasn’t intending to take over your world at all. I just wanted you to think I was so that you would try your hardest to stop me. In reality I have no interest in taking over and ruling anything.”

“So you were just going to destroy the world instead, huh?” Stan said.

“No,” Bill replied simply.

“Really? And what _would_ you have done if you had won your ‘game’?” Ford asked.

“I probably would’ve set up a scenario where you would think you could still stop me somehow. And then if I had won even that, I don’t know, probably whatever else I felt like,” Bill shrugged. “But those things didn’t happen, Pine Tree won the game I played against him. And you Sixer I would say our game ended in a draw.”

“’A draw’? How could that be a draw? I stopped you from coming into this dimension when I destroyed the interdimensional rift,” Ford said.

“That was part of the game I was playing with Pine Tree. No the game I was playing with you ended when you got sucked into your own portal. And I hardly think that counts as a win.”

“But wait I think we’re all forgetting a very important thing here,” Wendy suddenly cut in before Ford could make an angry reply. “When Mabel was first introducing us to Bill she referred to him as Dipper’s boyfriend.”

“Yeah of course she did, because Pine Tree and I are lovers,” Bill said grinning mischievously as he very openly entwined his fingers with Dipper’s. Dipper tried not to blush as he did so.

“So Dipper you mean to tell me that you’re dating an evil demon from another dimension who’s bent of taking over the world as some part of sick game he’s playing?” Stan asked.

“Yes, but he’s not…” Dipper began but was cut off by Stan.

“Absolutely not, I forbid it. You are _not_ dating him, you hear me? I refuse to let you date some evil demon who’s playing who knows what kind of sick game.”

“I object to the word ‘evil’. And I’m not playing any games right now,” Bill said.

“No Dipper, what would your parents say if they knew about this?” Stan said.

“I’m an adult Gruncle Stan you can’t tell me what to do,” Dipper said. “If I want to be with Bill I can and I will. I don’t care if you tell my parents, them knowing isn’t going to change anything.”

“What we should be doing is finding a way to destroy him, which means we probably should ensure he stay like that for as long as possible,” Ford said.

“No, I already told you I won’t let you touch him,” Dipper said very purposefully placing himself between Bill and everyone who wanted to hurt him.

“Whoa hang on a minute, before we go talking about killing anyone let’s take a step back and think for a bit,” Wendy said stepping forward. “I trust Mabel and Dipper and if they say Bill’s cool than as far as I’m concerned he’s cool, unless he proves himself to be otherwise.”

“Thanks Wendy,” Mabel said. “What about you Soos? You know we’d never lie about this.”

“Well I don’t know Mabel, we did kinda fight him and he seemed pretty bad back then,” Soos replied.

“Yeah but he’s changed, I promise,” she said. “Bill tell them about the thing so they’ll understand.”

“Ugh fine, Pine Tree tell them,” Bill said.

“Okay I guess,” Dipper sighed. “You see he’s trapped in that body by a curse a necromancer cast on him. So even if he wanted to take over the world, and I don’t believe he does, he wouldn’t be able to.”

“Then we should definitely take advantage of the opportunity to get rid of him for good,” Stan said taking a step forward.

“Don’t even think about it,” Dipper said making sure he still stood slightly in front of Bill.

“No you guys,” Mabel said. “Bill’s not a bad guy, stop talking about killing him. Why can’t we all just be friends?”

“Okay, if Mabel and Dipper say he’s changed then I’ll believe them,” Soos said. “People change, and I don’t think he actually hurt anyone for real.”

“He hurt Fiddleford pretty bad,” Ford said.

“I did not,” Bill protested. “He did that to himself and you know it.”

“Because of whatever it is he saw in your dimension,” Ford said.

“Actually he didn’t see my dimension at all, it was just an illusion I showed him to make him think I was planning on taking over your world,” Bill replied. “It’s not my fault he overreacted to it and drove himself insane. Even though I will say watching his descent into madness was quite entertaining.”

“You fucking piece of shit!” Ford said pushing past Dipper to pick up Bill by his shirt front.

“Hey Sixer, do me a favor and try not to ruin my shirt,” Bill said grinning despite dangling helplessly in Ford’s grip.

When Dipper tried to step forward and say something Bill lifted his hand stopping him. “I think I can handle ol’ six-fingers here.”

“You insolent little prick, you don’t care about any other than yourself. And now you’ve gone and fooled my nephew into thinking you’re not a heartless demon,” Ford growled

“Technically in my preferred form I am a heartless demon, but not having a heart does not mean I don’t have feelings,” Bill said matter-of-factly. “And as for me not caring about anyone other than myself, there was time not so long ago when that was true. But a lot of things have happened, and now I care for Pine Tree very much and I would never betray him or hurt him in anyway.”

“Yeah right,” Ford said throwing Bill to the ground and angrily storming off back up the stairs.

“Bill you okay?” Dipper asked rushing to his side.

“Yeah, I’m good,” Bill replied as Dipper helped him to his feet.

“I’m sorry about how they acted,” Dipper said.

“It’s fine Pine Tree, I knew they were going to do that.”

“I’m _never_ going to let them hurt you or try to lock you up anywhere,” Dipper said.

“You’re disgusting,” Stan said before also storming off.

“Why are they so mean to you Bill?” Mabel asked. “Especially Ford he seemed to hate you an awful lot.”

“That’s because at one point he trusted me because I told him he was special,” Bill went on to explain how he’d ‘betrayed’ Ford.

“Oh, and that’s why you guys didn’t want him knowing,” Mabel said when he was done.

“Wow, no wonder why he hates you,” Wendy said, her and Soos had stuck around to listen.

“Yeah wow Bill I’m sorry I told them. If I had known you guys had that kind of history I probably wouldn’t have,” Mabel said.

“It’s fine Shooting Star, we probably should’ve told you that before we came down here. But it’s too late now,” Bill replied.

“Really? You forgive me just like that?” Mabel asked.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I?” Bill shrugged. “Being mad at you about it won’t change it, and besides you had only good intentions.”

“You know for an evil demon you sure seem to be pretty nice,” Soos said.

“I’m not evil,” Bill said. “There was a time when I didn’t mind being called that but now that I’ve seen _real_ evil I’d rather not have people think of me like that anymore.”

“I assume you talking about that necromancer guy who cursed you or whatever, right?” Wendy said.

“Yes, I am referring to the necromancer,” Bill said.

“So what’s the story with this necromancer anyway? How’d he’d curse you or whatever?” Wendy asked. “I thought you were supposed to be like super powerful or something.”

“That is none of your business,” Bill said stiffly.

“Look let’s not talk about that anymore,” Dipper said. “Let’s just go back upstairs or something.”

As everyone was heading back up the stairs Bill whispered quietly to Dipper, “I hate to admit this Pine Tree but you were right, coming down here was a mistake.”

“Yeah but you provoking them certainly didn't help matters any,” Dipper sighed.

When they reached the top and slipped through the secret vending machine door Dipper saw Mabel, Wendy, and Soos were talking with Pacifica.

“I want to know what Stan and Ford are all upset about,” Pacifica was complaining loudly to them. “Mabel you can’t just go telling people things and leave me out.”

“Oh Stan and Ford are upset about Bill Cipher being Dipper’s lover,” Soos said.

“Why would they be upset about that?” Pacifica demanded.

“Because Bill is a demon from another dimension,” Soos replied.

“Soos!” Dipper and Mabel said at the same time.

“What? Why can’t she know? Everyone else knows,” Soos said giving them a confused look.

“Yeah might as well tell the whole world at this point. It’s not like I want to keep it a secret or anything,” Bill said rolling his eyes.

“There’s no way Bill’s a demon from another dimension,” Pacifica said. “He’s clearly very much human.”

“No, I’m not human, I am a demon from another dimension,” Bill said. “I was trapped like this by a necromancer.”

“Bill are you sure you want to tell her?” Dipper asked.

“Yeah why not? Question Mark is right, everybody else knows, so why not her too?”

“Sorry but I’m having trouble believing that,” Pacifica said squinting at him.

“Well it’s true. In fact I can actually show you what I used to look like,” Bill said turning around and pulling off his shirt to show her his tattoo he had of himself.

“Really? I think my parents have that on a tapestry somewhere in my house,” Pacifica said.

“Yeah, they do. I’m pretty famous actually. Try looking up dream demons sometime, I’ll almost always be the top result,” Bill said proudly as he turned around slipping his shirt back on as he did so.

“Wait, wait what was that on your chest?” Pacifica asked.

Bill rolled his eyes again and pulled his shirt up. “These are the rune keeping me trapped in this body,” he said.

“Wow they look cool,” Wendy said.

“There is absolutely nothing about them that is ‘cool’,” Bill said glaring at Wendy. “Or at least not the kind of cool you mean.”

“Can I touch?” Soos asked.

“No,” Bill said turning his glare onto Soos as he pulled his shirt back down.

“So you say these runes are what’s keeping you trapped in that body?” Pacifica asked.

“Yes,” Bill sighed.

“And the guy that did this to you, did he perhaps have a tendency to wear black and have a big black book with more of those runes in it?” she asked.

“How’d you know that?” Bill asked.

“Well you see I may have seen runes kind of like those somewhere before,” Pacifica answered.


	28. A Lead At Last

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter is late, Dark Souls 3 happened. Also I apologize in advance if this story now ends up disappointing anyone.

“Where?” Bill immediately demanded of Pacifica.

“Well uh, it’s kind of a long story,” Pacifica replied obviously uncomfortable with how intently Bill was staring at her.

“Tell me,” Bill commanded.

“Yes, Pacifica if you could tell us that would be great,” Dipper said trying to sound calm. How could Pacifica of all people possibly know anything about the runes?

“How ‘bout we all go to a private little corner and Pacifica can tell us all about it?” Mabel suggested.

So they all moved to a room in the back where they could talk privately.

“Well you see I have this cousin,” Pacifica began once they were sure no one would disturb them. “His name is Edward, or Eddie as he prefers to be called. He occasionally comes to the mansion to visit for a few weeks at a time. He has this big black book that had a bunch of those runes in it and on the cover. He said it was magic from another dimension that once he had mastered it he would be able to bring even godlike beings to their knees.”

“Where did he find this book?” Bill asked.

“I have no idea,” Pacifica replied. “He never told me and I never asked.”

“Is this Eddie guy perhaps the necromancer who trapped you like that?” Wendy asked.

“Yes probably,” Bill answered. “What else can you tell us about him Northwest?”

“I can tell you he’s mentally insane. When we were kids the first time he came over he killed my dog,” Pacifica said still clearly angry about it.

“Let me guess, he didn’t just kill your dog but he probably also killed it slowly too, right?” Bill said.

“Yeah, he did. He said he wanted to find out what its insides looked like when it was still alive,” Pacifica said.

“Yeah, that’s definitely him,” Bill said with conviction. “Pine Tree it looks like we finally found the guy who did this to me. Do you know what this means?”

“We might finally be able to free you,” Dipper said.

“That and I might finally be able to get my revenge,” Bill said with an evil grin. “Tell us more Northwest, tell us everything you know about him.”

“Sure I guess but only if you stop calling me by my last name, it’s annoying.”

“Fine Pacifica tell us everything you know,” Bill said.

“But how you so sure it’s him?” Wendy asked. “Couldn’t it be someone else using the same runes?”

“Let’s just say torture is kind of his thing,” Bill replied with a shrug.

“Wait does that mean… Bill did he…?” Mabel asked with a shocked expression on her face.

“Yes Shooting Star he did, and I’d rather not talk about it.”

“Oh Bill I’m so sorry,” Mabel said as she moved as if to hug Bill but he held up his hand to stop her.

“Please don’t Shooting Star, I don’t need you being all concerned about it, okay?” Bill said.

“Dipper did you know about this?” Mabel asked.

“Yeah, he told me a while ago. It’s not something we ever really talk about,” Dipper said.

“Wow that’s rough dude,” Soos said as both he and Wendy grimaced at what they had just learned.

“There are much more important things to talk about right now other than that,” Bill said. “Pacifica tell us what else you know about him.”

“Okay, I believe he lives somewhere in England if I remember correctly. He is of course rich, he inherited his family’s manor when he was sixteen after his parents died,” Pacifica said. “Every time he comes over at my place I would sometimes catch him hurting small helpless animals. When I asked him why he did this he said it was because he enjoyed having power over them and their lives.”

“Why didn’t you tell anyone that he was doing stuff like that?” Mabel asked with a horrified expression on her face.

“He said if I told anyone that he’d kill me too, and I’m pretty sure he meant it,” Pacifica said with a shudder. “He always acted so sweet and charming around the adults so one ever suspected him of anything. Anyway I guess you guys probably want to know about his book. It was the year before I was shipped off to college. He showed it to me and said he could use it to break even the most powerful beings in the universe. He fancied himself as some kind of demon necromancer, I always thought he was delusional but if what you say is true I guess not.”

“But how could I have possibly not known about him?” Bill asked irritated. “Like I didn’t spend a whole lot of time watching you but I watched you often enough that I should’ve known about him.”

“Wait, you watched me?” Pacifica said outraged.

“Yeah, always watching was kind of my thing back then,” Bill shrugged.

“You didn’t see me undressed or anything did you?” Pacifica asked horrified.

“Sure I did lots of times. I’ve seen everyone here naked at least once,” Bill replied.

“Oh my god, you pervert!”

“Calm down, I watched everyone that I thought was interesting,” Bill said with a grin. “And you were interesting, but not _nearly_ as fascinating as Pine Tree.”

“So even back then you had a thing for Dipper?” Mabel asked with a smile.

“Kinda, but not really in the same way as I do now,” Bill said as he took hold of Dipper’s hand.

“Okay, so now that we know who the necromancer is what do we do about it?” Dipper asked. “Do you know where he might be right now Pacifica?”

“Probably back at his manor in England, but I’m not sure. I do know that he stayed at my place like all of last year I think,” Pacifica said.   

“Why?” Bill asked.

“I don’t know, some sort of project he was working on or something. I wasn’t there so I don’t know for sure.”

“Hmmm, call one of your servants and ask them,” Bill said.

“Why? Is it important?” At Bill’s nod Pacifica pulled out her phone and dialed a number. “Hey remember Eddie, he stayed at the manor all of last year right? Yeah him, what was he there for?”

After a short pause she nodded and thanked the person on the other end before hanging up. “Apparently he was working on some private project in the area that he wouldn’t tell anyone about. Supposedly he left because this project ended prematurely but it didn’t matter because he’d been about to end it himself anyway.”

“I bet I know what that ‘project’ was,” Bill said with a slight sneer.

“Really what?” Soos asked.

“Me,” Bill replied.

Dipper grimaced at the thought, the timing definitely made sense. But if that were true than he’d been about to end Bill, meaning Bill had escaped just in time.

“Wait are you saying he held you captive or whatever for a full year?” Wendy asked.

“Yep, it was New Year’s when he first trapped me then a lot of time passed and it was early January when I escaped. So yeah a full year.”

“What did he do to you while he held you captive? And why was he holding you captive in the first place?” Wendy asked.

“You already know what he did to me while he held me captive, and I refuse to say anything else about it,” Bill said. “We have more important things to discuss, like how we’re going to find him now.”

“I could ask my parents for his phone number,” Pacifica suggested.

“Yes, do that, right now,” Bill demanded.

“I can’t, they wouldn’t appreciate it if I called them this late in the day,” Pacifica said. “Look I’ll ask them tomorrow morning, okay? And then I’ll call you guys and tell you the number.”

“No, we can’t call him. You have to,” Bill said.

“What, why? This doesn’t really have anything to do with me and I’d much rather not talk to him,” Pacifica said.

“Because he can’t know I’m here. You have to call him and tell him to come back down here so we can surprise him.”

“All right I guess fine,” Pacifica conceded. “When I call him what do you want me to tell him?”

“Only tell him to come back down here, say absolutely _nothing_ about me. I need the advantage of surprise,” Bill said.

“Oh okay fine, but you owe me big afterwards,” Pacifica said pointing towards Bill.

“Yeah of course.”

“But what are you guys going to do when he gets here?” Mabel asked.

“We’ll figure that out when the time comes,” Bill said.

Dipper suspected Bill already had an idea of what he wanted to do but didn’t want to say what it was yet.

 

They hung around at the party for a few more hours after that before Pacifica summoned her limo to take them all home. Before leaving the limo Bill once more made her promise to call up the necromancer.

“Oh it’s so good to finally be home,” Bill said as he slumped on the couch.

“How do you feel about the whole necromancer thing?” Dipper asked sitting down on the couch next to him. He hadn’t gotten a chance to ask Bill about this until just now and was dying to know what Bill thought of it.

“I don’t know,” Bill shrugged. “This might eventually lead to me getting my revenge and freedom but I can’t let my hopes get too high. There’s still the possibility that Northwest won’t be able to get him to come down here or might not even be able to talk to him at all. And there are still a hundred other things that could go wrong.”

“But assuming Pacifica does get him to come back what’s the plan?” Dipper asked.

“We kill him.”

Dipper had suspected an answer like that. But he hadn’t thought Bill would include him in it. And he wasn’t sure he really wanted to kill anyone.

“Now Pine Tree I know how you and most humans are about killing people but I might really need your help with this,” Bill said.

“Maybe he’ll free you if we ask nice enough,” Dipper said.

“No he won’t. Besides I can’t allow him to live after what he did to me. And I refuse to tolerate his existence or let him use his magic on me ever again,” Bill said deadly serious.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Dipper sighed. “Even though I still don’t like the thought of killing someone.”

“I know, but I wouldn’t ask for your help if I didn’t need it. I might not be able to do it by myself and to tell you the truth, I’d be too scared to go anywhere near him if I was alone. So please Pine Tree if it comes down to it promise you’ll help me kill him.”

“Yes all right, if it comes down to it I’ll… help you kill him,” Dipper had promised he’d do anything for Bill and he meant to keep that promise. Besides after everything the necromancer had done to Bill he would kind of deserve it.

“Okay good, but we should probably leave Shooting Star out of it,” Bills said.

“What? Why?” Dipper asked.

“Because we’re going to kill him, do you really want her seeing that?” Bill replied.

“Oh right yeah,” Dipper said.

“Or he might kill us. Or he might capture us and torture us until he then decides to kill us. Or he might just kill us really slowly. Or he might…”

“Bill stop,” Dipper cut him off. “None of those things are going to happen.”

“You don’t know that Pine Tree. Those are all very real possibilities. As you know he’s very powerful and if we can’t kill him then he’ll for sure kill us.”

“I’m sure it’ll all turn out fine. He won’t expect us to try anything so we’ll have the element of surprise on our side,” Dipper said putting a comforting hand on Bill’s shoulder.

“Yeah you’re right Pine Tree, I can’t consider any of those negative outcomes. And who knows we might be getting all excited over nothing, there’s no guarantee that now that we know who the necromancer is that we’ll be able to find him.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm starting to get really close to finishing this and I think I'm going to try really hard for it. So I'm going to try to update every few days if I can. Next chapter might be up tomorrow or the next day, depends on how I feel (and on how much time I can spend playing Dark Souls 3 before it crashes.)


	29. Phone Calls

_***Pacifica Northwest***_

The next day Pacifica nervously approached her mother. “Hey Mom, can I ask you something real quick?”

“Yeah sure, but make it fast,” her mother replied.

“You remember my cousin Eddie right? Well a couple of my friends are looking for him and I was wondering when he was here last did he leave any way to contact him?” Pacifica said.

“Why don’t you try his phone number instead of bothering me about this?” her mother said obviously annoyed.

“Well I don’t know what his number is, which is why I was asking you,” Pacifica said trying to keep her own annoyance out of her voice.

“Ask one of the servants,” her mother said before stalking off.

“Humph, fine then I will,” Pacifica said as she summoned one of the ever present butlers with a wave of her hand. “I need my Cousin Eddie’s phone number,” she told him.

“Very well ma’am, I’ll be right back with that,” he said before heading off.

Pacifica still wasn’t entirely sure she believed that Bill wasn’t human but she figured that was the only explanation as to why he’d have similar runes to the ones in Eddie’s weird book. Unless Eddie and Bill just knew each other somehow and were playing some weird joke on her. But no Eddie had clearly believed what he had said about the book and would totally do something like trapping a demon (or whatever Bill was supposed to be) in a body to torture them.

“Here you are ma’am,” the butler said as he returned holding a small slip of paper with a phone number neatly written on it. “Is there anything else you require of me?”

“No,” Pacifica dismissed him with a wave of her hand. She didn’t really want to call Eddie but she had already promised she would. Hopefully he wouldn’t pick up though.

She made her way up to her room to make the call in private. After dialing the number she held the phone to her ear still hoping he wouldn’t pick up.

And he didn’t, after a while the call went through to voice mail. “Hello this is Edward Northwest, I’m not here right now but feel free to leave a message after the beep,” Eddie’s recorded voice said.

“Uh, hi Eddie this is Pacifica, I uh need to talk to you about something. So when you get this message call me back,” she said after the beep.

After hanging up the phone she picked it up again to call Dipper. Might as well tell him that she’d made the call.

_***_

 

Bill had been nervously pacing around the house all morning and nothing Dipper did could calm him down even a little. Dipper was also excited to see what Pacifica would say about the necromancer and could only just force himself to be still as they waited for her call.

So when the phone _finally_ started ringing at last they both jumped and Dipper hurriedly went to answer it, putting it on speaker as he did so.

“I called Eddie like you guys asked me too,” Pacifica said after they’d exchanged quick greetings.

“Yeah, and what did he say?” Bill asked impatiently.

“Well he wasn’t there, I got his answering machine. I left a message telling him to call me back.”

“Well when he does call you back make sure not say anything about me,” Bill said.

“Yeah I know,” Pacifica said. “But what _do_ you want me say?”

“Get him to come down here or get him to tell you where he is,” Bill said.

“Okay I can do that, but uh can I ask you guys for a favor?” Pacifica said.

“Yeah, sure what is it?” Dipper asked.

“Well Eddie is dangerous and kind of scary, especially if what you say is true. Do you think you can leave Mabel out of this? I don’t want her getting hurt.”

“We were going to do that anyway,” Bill assured her.

“All right good, I’ll call you guys back if and when Eddie calls me.”

“Wait before you go, can you record your conversation with him?” Bill said. “I know you have the equipment for it.”

“Yeah, I can do that,” Pacifica said before ending the call.

“What if this doesn’t work Pine Tree?” Bill asked as he went back to pacing.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Dipper assured him.

“But what if… Pine Tree you need to get a gun,” Bill said.

“Are you sure we need a gun?” Dipper asked.

“Yes, it’s the only way to be safe,” Bill replied. “Well actually having two guns would probably be better, one for me and one for you.”

“But shooting somebody is illegal,” Dipper protested.

“Yeah but that doesn’t really matter as long as we don’t get caught. What’s important Pine Tree is that I might finally get free, but for that to happen he _has_ to die.”

“Yeah I know, you’re right. And after what he did to you I guess he probably deserves it. But maybe we can just get him imprisoned for life instead?”

“No, he needs to die,” Bill said. “Pine Tree remember when you said you wished you could do more to help me? Well here’s your chance. So can you please, _please_ do this for me?”

“I already said I would,” Dipper said even though he still had his misgivings about killing someone, even if that someone was evil.

“You really are the best Pine Tree,” Bill said hugging Dipper.

 

 

_***Pacifica Northwest***_

It was good solid two weeks before Eddie finally called her back.

“Ma’am there’s a phone call for you, it’s your cousin Eddie,” one of the servants announced early one morning shortly after she’d finished breakfast. With a sigh she went to go answer it.

“Um, hello?” she said as she picked up the receiver and placed it to her ear after setting the call to record.

“Yes, hello Pacifica,” Eddie’s silky smooth voice answered her. “You left a message saying you wanted to talk to me about something.”

“Yeah, it’s about that book you showed me a few years ago, where did it come from?” she asked.

“I found it. Why do you want to know?”

“Well I’m just wondering if it’s real. Like does the magic in actually work?” Pacifica said.

“Of course it works. In fact I’ve been using the magic in it to kill every being in an entire dimension. It’s actually been quite fun, they all think they can defeat me by themselves. But because of what I learned when I captured one of the more powerful ones I can easily kill them with little to no problems. If you’re willing to come for a visit I would gladly show you,” Eddie replied.

“Well actually no thank you, I’d rather not see anything like that. But uh, I would like to know more about the ‘more powerful one’ you supposedly captured,” Pacifica said.

“Remember that tapestry your parents have of that dream demon who looks like a triangle, that’s the one I captured. He goes by the name of Bill Cipher if I remember correctly, but I always preferred to call him my slave. I learned an awful lot from experimenting on him, but unfortunately he escaped a few days before I was going to kill him for good, and I couldn’t really be bothered to go to all the trouble of finding him. But it was in that area so if you ever meet someone with that name tell me so I can finish what I started.”

“Well uh no, I don’t think I know anyone by that name,” Pacifica lied trying to sound casual. “But I do have a favor to ask, do you think you could come down here for a few days at least?”

“Why?”

“Because… I uh kind of want to learn how to use magic and stuff,” Pacifica lied again.

“I thought you didn’t believe in supernatural stuff, and you didn’t seem interested in learning it when I showed you a few years ago,” Eddie replied.

“Well uh, I’ve changed my mind. I ran into something recently that made me rethink my stance on that, so if you could come down here and like teach me or something that would great,” Pacifica said.

“Hmmm, sure I guess I can but I’m kind of busy right now. Even though I am almost done, and I do kinda need to go back there to look for my lost slave anyway. I might be able to finish in the next few weeks though so I might be able to go down there in like a month or so,” Eddie replied.

“What exactly is it that you’re working on?” Pacifica asked.

“I told you, this dimension I found, I’m destroying everything in it.”

“Why?” Pacifica asked nervously.

“Practice, and so that I can say I did it, meaning things from other dimensions will fear me and do as I tell them or else they’ll meet the same fate. Also because it’s fun showing how much more powerful I am than they are,” Eddie said.

“You’re really creepy you know,” Pacifica said.

Eddie laughed in response, “It’s a real power trip though, and it feels good to be feared by beings that once believed that they were masters of the universe. In fact I think you should try it some time.”

“Whatever, just call me when you’re about to head over,” Pacifica said eager to end this conversation.

“Okay, I’ll talk to you later then,” Eddie said with another laugh before hanging up the phone.

So Bill had been telling the truth. He really was a demon from another dimension who’d become Eddie’s test subject. Pacifica wasn’t really sure how she felt about the whole thing but she figured she probably best call and let the boys know what was happening with Eddie.

***


	30. Golden Revolver

As Dipper and Bill listened to the recorded call Dipper couldn’t help but notice how agitated Bill became at just the sound of Eddie’s voice. Pacifica had called them over and even sent her limo driver to pick them up. She hadn’t told them what was up until they were in her sitting room where she had the recorded message waiting for them.

“So what are you guys going to do about him once he gets here?” Pacifica asked them once the message ended.

“We’re going to kill him,” Bill replied without hesitation.

“I see… and uh how are you going to do that?” Pacifica said.

“Pine Tree’s going to get a gun and we’re going to shoot him,” Bill said.

Dipper wasn’t really sure telling Pacifica their plan to kill her cousin was smart but it was already too late to suggest otherwise. He still had his own misgivings over the plan itself too but there was nothing he could do about that right now either.

“Yeah, so Pacifica if you could like let us know when he’s going to be coming back that would great,” Dipper said.

“Yeah of course I’ll let you guys know,” Pacifica said. “Just be careful not to get caught by the police or anything. I’ll even help you guys out if you promise not to say anything about me if you do get caught.”

“Wait, you’re cool with us killing your cousin like that?” Dipper asked.

“Yeah, he’s not a good person. So as long as you don’t do it in front of me and we continue to leave Mabel out of it I don’t care,” Pacifica replied.

“Good, I’m glad you see the sense of this,” Bill said. “Your family has a few guns right? Do you think we could borrow a one or two?”

“Yeah, my dad does but I don’t think he’d let you borrow them, but I guess I could lend you the one I own,” Pacifica said.

“Wait since when have you owned a gun?” Dipper asked.

“Not that long really, I got it as a gift on my twenty-first birthday from a distant uncle so I could protect myself,” Pacifica said as she started digging through her purse. After a little while she pulled out a small hand gun. “Here, just don’t tell anyone I lent it to you,” she said handing it to Dipper.

As Dipper reluctantly accepted it he noticed it was a revolver seemingly made of gold, or at least gold-plated. Knowing how rich her family was the gold was no doubt real, meaning this was an expensive loan.

“It’s a golden revolver, how funny,” Bill said as they both looked at it.

“Why is that funny?” Dipper asked.

“It just is, reminds me of a guy I used to know.” Bill shrugged.

“All right so what do we do while we wait for Eddie or whatever his name is to show up?” Dipper asked.

“I have no idea,” Bill said.

 

When they got back home after putting the golden revolver in a safe place they cuddled up on the couch together.

“I’m scared Pine Tree,” Bill admitted quietly. “What if this doesn’t work? What if all we’re doing is getting him to come over to us and instead of us killing him he kills us?”

Dipper wasn’t really sure how to reassure him but tried anyway. “I’m sure it’ll work out just fine.”

“Also because of me he’s killing everyone I used to know and I can’t do anything about it,” Bill said with a depressed sigh.

“That’s not your fault,” Dipper said knowing there was no conceivable way he could make Bill feel better about that.

“No it is my fault, he said it on the phone to Northwest. If I hadn’t been captured by him he wouldn’t be able to do that,” Bill said. “It’s just one more thing I have to live with, and one more thing I can’t bear to ever think about.”

“I’m sorry, I wish there was something we could do to stop him,” Dipper said.

They didn’t say anything else after that. They just quietly sat there holding each other. Eventually however Dipper’s phone suddenly broke the silence, it was Mabel’s ringtone.

“Hey Mabel, what’s up?” he said as he answered it.

“Hey Dip, what’s happening with the necromancer? And don’t leave me out like I know you guys are planning to, I have a right to know too.”

“I guess you kinda do, but he’s dangerous so promise you won’t go anywhere near him when he gets here,” Dipper replied.

“Oh so you definitely got a hold of him then, and he’s coming back down here? Good. What are you guys going to do when he gets here?”

“Well uh… we don’t know yet,” Dipper lied, he didn’t want his sister knowing he was possibly planning on killing someone. “He’s not going to be here for a while yet so we’ve got some time to figure it out.”

“Has Gruncle Ford tried to do anything to Bill yet?”

“No, I’m hoping he decides to trust me and not do anything,” Dipper said.

“Maybe you should try talking to him again. Or maybe I could try talking to him. I still think we could all be friends if we just try. Maybe ask Bill to apologize to him,” Mabel said.

“Bill would you apologize to Ford if I asked you to?” Dipper asked turning to Bill.

“No, I’m not sorry about what I did to him so I won’t apologize for it. I guess I’m a little sorry about what I did to you. But that was part of a game, and I can hardly be held responsible for what I did during a game,” Bill replied.

“He’s not willing to apologize to him,” Dipper said into the phone.

“I guess that’s not really surprising. Anyway I gotta go now, call me and tell me when you decide what to do about the necromancer. Maybe I’ll also try to talk to Gruncle Ford later,” Mabel said before ending the call.

“Pine Tree, what _are_ we going to do about Sixer if he does decide to try something?” Bill asked.

“I have no idea,” Dipper said truthfully. Ever since the Summerween party neither of his great uncles had called him even once. He knew they were still mad about Bill so that made sense, but he had kind of expected them to call to try to change his mind. But they hadn’t and the suspense about what they were going to do next was killing him.

“I guess there’s really nothing we can do about either of those problems right now so let’s just not worry about them anymore for now,” Bill said with a shrug.

They spent the rest of the day cuddling and playing video games. They didn’t talk about Eddie or Ford, but they were still both constantly in the back of Dipper’s mind. He wished he could at least come up with some idea of what to do about them but Bill was right, there was nothing that could be done until later.

 

The next day Dipper finally got a call from Ford.

“Dipper I need to ask you something?” Ford surprisingly didn’t sound angry or upset.

“Yeah, sure go ahead.”

“Those runes on Bill’s chest, do you know anything else about them? I’ve looked everywhere and they don’t seem to exist anywhere else,” Ford said.

“Yeah I know some stuff,” Dipper said before turning to Bill who was watching him intently, “Bill how much are you okay with me telling Ford about the runes?”

“Go ahead and tell him everything, I don’t care. It might even make him trust you more,” Bill replied. “Just don’t tell him about the whole me being tortured bit, I’d rather he not know about that.”

Dipper told Ford what little he knew about the runes. About how they were cast and that they were most likely from another dimension. After getting another okay from Bill he even told Ford about how they had gotten hot when he’d tried an exorcism. Ford surprisingly didn’t say anything about how he felt about Dipper’s exorcism attempt.

“That’s not really a lot to go on,” Ford said. “Are you absolutely sure that Bill’s not faking any of this?”

“Yes, I’m absolutely sure. I’ve been living with him for some time now and he’s told me things that I know he wouldn’t tell me if he wasn’t being truthful.”

“Like what?”

“I can’t tell you, their kinda personal. But I can promise you he’s not a bad guy,” Dipper said.

“It’s just me and Stan were talking, and after the initial shock wore off he started thinking that maybe we had overreacted. He pointed out that if Bill really is trapped like that, maybe he’s not anything we have to really worry about.” Ford said hesitantly. “Look is Bill there right now? Can we all just have a real quick chat about this?”

“Hold on just let me put you on speaker,” Dipper said before turning and quietly whispering to Bill, “He wants to talk, so please don’t patronize or provoke him in anyway.”

“All right, I’ll try to play nice for as long as he does,” Bill promised as Dipper put the phone on speaker mode. “Hey Sixer, what’s up?”

“Uh… not much,” Ford said awkwardly. “How much more can you tell me about those runes on your chest?”

“Pine Tree told you basically everything,” Bill said. “So how’s life Sixer? What’s it like knowing someone else found a way to defeat your supposed ‘arch enemy’? As you used to like to think of me.”

“I would really like to know how that magic works so that I could employ it myself if I needed to,” Ford said.

“I would like to know that too,” Bill replied.

“You seriously don’t know anything about it? You of all people, or demons rather?”

“Yep, I didn’t even know of its existence until it was used against me,” Bill said with an annoyed sigh.

“That’s fascinating. I thought you said you knew everything there was to know about the universe.”

“I thought I did, but I was wrong,” Bill replied surprisingly pretty humble for once.

The three of them spent the next few hours chatting about various topics. At some point Stan even joined in. Dipper was surprised at how everyone got along for the most part, he figured Mabel must’ve said something to them about being friends. It was obvious that Ford still wasn’t too fond of Bill but was willing to tolerate him as long as he remained powerless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know not much happened this chapter but it dealt with some things that I felt needed to be dealt with. Next chapter stuff really starts happening, I promise.
> 
> Also I'm curious if anyone gets the reference I made in this chapter.


	31. The Beginning of the End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter is so late, I've been busy with stuff. But I FINALLY got my new laptop and should be able to work on all the things I want to work on again.

_***Pacifica Northwest***_

About a month later Pacifica finally got a call back from Eddie. “Hey Pacifica, I’m like five minutes away from you place. Make sure to let you servants know to let me in,” he said.

“What? I thought you were going to call when you were about to head down here?” Pacifica had been planning on inviting the boys over when he was supposed to arrive. That way they could do what they needed to do without her actually having to talk to Eddie.

“Nah, why bother with all that nonsense?” Eddie replied.

“Because some people need to be prepared for when their guests arrive,” Pacifica said.

“Deal with it,” Eddie said before abruptly ending the call.

Pacifica hurriedly told her servants about Eddie’s imminent arrival. She wanted to call Dipper and Bill over, but there was no way they would be able to arrive before Eddie got there. She wondered if she should let them know anyway but just as she was about to call them she heard a commotion coming from the front of the house.

“Hey Pazi, how’s it going?” Eddie greeted her as he walked through the front door using the awful nickname he had for her. He was taller and paler than she remembered and wore a fancy suit made of expensive cloth, all black of course.

“Hi Eddie,” she greeted him.

“So Pazi why did you want me coming down here again?” he asked after gesturing to the servants to move out of earshot.

“I told you because I want to learn…”

“No, what’s the _real_ reason you want me here?” he interrupted her. “You were lying about that and we both know it.”

Pacifica froze wanting to deny it but his cold glare left her speechless. How could he have possibly known she was lying?

“Well I guess you’re not going to tell me then, that’s fine. I’m sure I’ll figure it out eventually anyway. Now if you’ll excuse me I think I’ll make myself at home in my usual guest room. I have lots to do before I start searching for my lost slave tomorrow,” Eddie said before waving some servants closer and instructing them to grab his bags from his car parked out front.

Pacifica glad that he hadn’t pursued her reason for lying (at least for now) quickly ran up to her own room. After locking the door she pulled out her cell phone and dialed Dipper’s number.

_***_

 

“Eddie’s here,” Pacifica said as soon as Dipper picked up his phone.

“Really? Like he’s over there right now?” Dipper asked. He hadn’t expected it to be so soon. He wasn’t ready, he still hadn’t come to terms with the fact that he might have to kill somebody.

“Yes, he arrived like five minutes ago,” Pacifica replied. “And he knows I was lying when I talked to him on the phone last time.”

“Hey Bill,” Dipper called to Bill who was in the living room.

“Yeah,” he replied as he walked into the kitchen a few seconds later.

“Eddie just arrived at the Northwest manor a few minutes ago,” Dipper said.

Bill froze at the news. “Are… you sure?”

“Yeah, Pacifica’s on the phone and she just told me,” Dipper replied as he put the phone on speaker.

“Yeah, so what do you guys want me do about him?” Pacifica asked.

“I… I don’t know,” Bill said. “Is he going to be staying at your place? If so what room will he be in?”

“Yeah, he’s staying here in one the guest rooms,” Pacifica replied.

“Does he have his rune book with him?” Bill asked eagerly.

“I don’t know, I assume so,” Pacifica said. “But what do you me to do about him? He knows I was lying on the phone last time we talked and I don’t know what he’s going to do about that.”

“I don’t know,” Bill said. “Look we’ll go up there in the middle of the night tonight and we’ll kill him. Meet us at the front door to let us in, and make sure there isn’t anyone around at the time. Also make sure he doesn’t suspect you of possibly betraying him.”

“Fine I guess, but that doesn’t help me know what to do about him right now,” Pacifica said.

“Just act friendly towards him for now and uh make sure he’s in his room tonight,” Bills said.

“Okay fine, I’ll see you guys tonight then,” Pacifica said before hanging up.

“Pine Tree where did you put the gun?” Bill asked nervously.

Dipper went to go pull the golden revolver out of its hiding spot and handed it to Bill. Bill examined it checking to see if it was loaded as he started pacing around back and forth between the kitchen and the living room.

“So we’re really going to kill a guy tonight huh?” Dipper said still not sure how he felt about that.

“Yeah Pine Tree we _have_ to,” Bill replied tensely.

“Okay, so after we… kill him, what next?”

“Hopefully he has his book thing that we can steal and hopefully you’ll be able to learn the magic in it so that you can free me. Hopefully.”

With a sigh Dipper walked over to Bill and gently took the gun out of his hand placing it on the counter. He then pulled him into a gentle embrace.

“Calm down, being all nervous isn’t going to help,” he whispered.

“I’m scared Pine Tree,” Bill whispered back as he rested his head on Dipper’s chest. “I don’t want to see him again. What if… what if we can’t kill him? What if he just kills me instead?”

“I won’t let him hurt you,” Dipper quietly promised.

They spent the rest of the day mostly cuddling. Dipper did his best to soothe Bill’s fears but Bill was still in a constant state of fear and nervousness that nothing could really cure. As the day rolled on he seemed to almost cling to Dipper as if his life depended on it.

But finally at last once dark had fully set in they called Pacifica’s cell phone again telling her they were coming over. They then jumped in the car and Dipper drove them down to the Northwest manor.

When they got there Pacifica was waiting for them outside the front door. “He’s spent almost the whole day holed up in his room, thank goodness,” she said after they’d exchanged a quiet greeting as they entered the house together.

“Okay, what room is he in?” Bill asked nervously. He was holding the golden revolver in his hands despite Dipper having asked him to carry it in his pocket for now.

“Uh, I’ll show you,” Pacifica said as she waved them onward deeper into the house. She led them up some stairs and down a hall that lead to another hall that she stopped at. “His room is the last door on the left of this hallway I’ll wait here for you to finish what you need to do. Here’s my copy of the master key in case it’s locked, but be sure to return it to me as soon as possible, okay?” Pacifica handed Dipper a key before moving a few steps back.

“Okay, well here goes,” Dipper whispered as they started down the hall.


	32. The Necromancer

They quietly snuck down the hallway until they reached the last door on the left. Dipper gently tried turning the handle, it didn’t budge. So he took out the key Pacifica had lent him and inserted it into the lock. He then let the door swing quietly open.

Inside the room was almost pitch black. If it wasn’t for the small amount of light coming in through the crack in the curtains it would’ve been impossible to see anything. He could barely make out the shape of the bed and what looked like someone lying on it. That had to be Eddie right? The guy they came to kill in cold blood.

“Let’s do this Pine Tree,” Bill whispered nervously beside him.

Dipper suddenly had the feeling that maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all and wished they could leave and just forget the whole thing. But it was too late to change their minds, they were already here. And besides if they didn’t kill Eddie he would hunt them down instead. So he reluctantly followed Bill inside.

Pretty much as soon as they were both in the room the door slammed shut and the lights flickered on. Standing in front of them was a tall dark-haired man wearing an all-black suit. Bill immediately pointed the gun in his direction but the man didn’t seem fazed as he quickly drew one of the magic runes in the air which seemed to make Bill freeze and unable to move, causing him drop drop the gun. As the man drew the rune there seemed to be a smoky trail left by his finger that hung in the air above Bill’s head.

“Nope not today,” the man said. Dipper recognized the voice from the recorded phone call. This was Eddie the necromancer, the guy they’d come to kill.

“But it is very good of you to come to me, saves me a lot of trouble,” Eddie continued as he drew another rune above Bill’s head causing him to drop to his knees. “This must be why Pazi wanted me here, how very sweet of her to arrange out little reunion like that. And you brought a friend too, how nice.”

“Fuck you,” Bill growled at him seemingly unable to move probably due to the rune still floating above him.

“Such language,” Eddie said. “And you’re not even going to introduce me to your friend? How very rude of you.”

Dipper glanced at the gun on the floor and considered making a grab for it but then Eddie bent down and picked it up. “You’re really thinking about trying to kill me even before we’ve been properly introduced? The two of you are just _so_ rude.”

“W-why are you doing this?” Dipper stuttered.

“Because I can, and because it’s fun,” Eddie replied. “Now my name is Edward, but you may call me Eddie. And I would like to know your name now too.”

“Why can’t you just…” Dipper began but cut himself off when Eddie pointed the golden revolver at him.

“I _said_ I want to know what your name is.”

“D-Dipper,” he managed to stammer in reply and Eddie lowered the gun again.

“Good, now that we all know each other let’s discuss why you two came up to my room in the middle of the night like this.”

“We’re going to kill you,” Bill said.

“Oh really, and how’s that working out for you so far?” Eddie said with a condescending grin. “No you’re never going to be able to kill me. But I will kill you after I’ve had a bit more fun with you of course.”

Eddie started drawing another rune in the air in front of Bill. But before he could finish, Dipper took a step forward and grabbed his arm.

“Are you really trying to protect him?” Eddie asked turning his cold glare on Dipper as he roughly freed his arm from Dipper’s grasp.

“Y-yes,” Dipper said trying to keep his voice steady as he placed himself between Bill and Eddie. “Just let him go, he didn’t do anything to you.”

“You know I’ll probably only kill you too if you protect him, right?”

“Well I’m hoping that you won’t. And that maybe you’ll see sense in just freeing him. He didn’t do anything to deserve what you’ve done to him,” Dipper replied.

This guy surely couldn’t be all evil, right? Evil didn’t actually exist in the real world. Maybe Dipper could find a way to appeal to his good side and solve this peacefully. Bill wouldn’t like that but it’d be a better solution.

“Pine Tree, talking to him isn’t going to do anything,” Bill said from behind him, still immobilized by Eddie’s spell.

“You are aware that he’s not even human, right? He’s a demon from another dimension.” Eddie said.

“So? He’s still my friend and I care about him. So please let us go. And free him too, that would be nice.”

“You care about him? That has got to be one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard,” Eddie said with a laugh. “The real question though is, does he care about _you_?”

“Yes he does.”

“Is that true my little slave? _Do_ you care about him?” Eddie said looking past Dipper’s shoulder at Bill.

“I’m not your slave,” Bill’s voice shook despite the fact that he was obviously trying to sound angry.

“ _Answer_ the question,” Eddie demanded.

“Y-yes, I care for Pine Tree,” Bill said as he flinched away from Eddie’s scornful gaze.

“All right but how _much_ do you care about him?”

Dipper wasn’t ready for when Eddie suddenly put an arm around his neck pulling him close. He was about to struggle when he felt something cold touch his temple, it was the golden revolver.

“Um, hey wait a minute you don’t have to…” he began as he clutched at Eddie’s arm unable free himself of it, but was cut off when Eddie jerked him and pressed the revolver’s muzzle more firmly against his head.

“Okay so little slave, how would you feel if I sprayed your Pine Tree’s brains across the floor?” Eddie said with a grin in his voice.

“You better not!” Bill growled. “Pine Tree’s mine, so you better not even think of hurting him.”

“Oh but how are you going to stop me? You couldn’t stop me from hurting you so what makes you think you could stop me from hurting him?”

Trying not to freak out Dipper watched as Bill’s face fell. He could feel Eddie’s breath on the back of his neck. He tried to shift away slightly but Eddie’s grip on him was firm.

“You’re not actually going to kill me… are you?” he asked. Surely Eddie was just bluffing, right? If Eddie killed him, he’d get in trouble with the law and he didn’t want that, did he?

“Depends on how badly my little slave wants to keep you alive,” Eddie said. “So little slave, what would you be willing to do to make sure your precious Pine Tree doesn’t die?”

“I... I’m sorry I dragged you into this Pine Tree,” Bill said, his voice full of despair. “What would you want me to do Eddie?”

“Ah but you know you’re not supposed to call me ‘Eddie’. We’ve discussed this so many time you’d think you’d get the picture by now.”

“Fine,” Bill growled. “What would you want me to do… Master?”

“Oh wow, he really does care about you. Normally I can only get him to call me by my proper title after I’ve tortured him for a few hours,” Eddie said sounding extremely pleased with himself. “As for what I want you to do to save your Pine Tree, I don’t actually know yet. But I’m sure I can think of something fun eventually.”

“I’m going to fucking _kill_ you one of these days,” Bill said angrily. “And it’s going to be slow and painful. You’re going to wish you were never born long before I’m done with you.”

“Are you really in a position where you think you can threaten me when I’m holding your Pine Tree at gunpoint like this?”

Bill flinched but didn’t say anything.

“Okay look Eddie, maybe we can talk about this. I mean what could you possibly gain from killing me or hurting Bill? Pacifica knows we’re here and she’ll call the cops if you kill either of us. So how ‘bout you let me go and then me and Bill just leave?” Dipper said. He needed to stay calm, he was the only one who could get them out of this. Bill was depending on him.

“Even if Pazi does call the cops it won’t matter when I just disappear into another dimension. Unfortunately, my magic doesn’t work on humans so I wouldn’t be able to kill them, but whatever. Also why do you think I would just let you go when we’re currently having so much fun?”

“This isn’t what I would call fun,” Bill said.

“Oh it’s not fun for you but it’s certainly tons of fun for me. Speaking of fun I just came up with an idea for a fun little game we could play.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy another cliffhanger, don't you guys love me. ;)
> 
> Next chapter's probably going to be the last real chapter followed by an epilogue, which might be in two parts. As a result I'm not going to upload it until the story's completely done. It shouldn't take too terribly much longer to finish, since next chapter's already half done and I know exactly what's going to happen in the epilogue.
> 
> I'm sorry about how long it's been between updates lately, but up until just recently I've been having trouble working on this story for some reason. But the words have finally come back to me and I should be able to finish it now, hopefully before the week is done. And I hope everyone still likes it despite how tonally different it is from the rest of the story.


	33. A/N Apologies

I’m super sorry for how long it’s taken for me to update this story. Especially since I left off on a cliff hanger. I don’t really have much of an excuse other than: after the series finale aired I kind of lost interest in it. Without the next episode to look forward to I just didn’t think about it as much and as a result, thought about this story less too.

And then I fell into the hole that is the Undertale fandom. And a story I was writing for that took up all my focus and energy and I couldn’t bring myself to work on anything other than that. But I finished it now (other than editing and stuff) so I’ve finally been able to come back to this to finish it.

If anyone even still cares about this story the next chapter will be up tomorrow. I finished it today but I want to give it another edit before putting it up.

Again, I’m really super sorry for the hiatus. I didn’t mean to, I swear. And I feel awful for taking so long on it. I hope you guys can forgive me, assuming you even still care about this story after all this time.


	34. The End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone for understanding about the hiatus thing.

_***Mabel Pines***_

Mabel knew Dipper and Bill were intentionally leaving her out of their dealings with Eddie the necromancer. She understood it was because they didn’t want her to get hurt but that didn’t make her any less angry about it. She had a right to know and be part of it, Bill was her friend too after all.

So, when she saw Dipper’s car drive by her place in the middle of the night she followed, guessing by the direction they were heading that they were going to Pacifica’s house. Meaning they were either going to confront the necromancer or talk to Pacifica more about him. Either way Mabel had a right to be part of it to.

She’d been staying up working on a cute sweater she was making for Dipper for when their birthday rolled around in a little less than a month. When she’d heard a car driving by, she’d looked out the window since that was an odd occurrence at that time of night. It was Dipper’s car, unmistakable because of how beat up and ugly it was.

So, annoyed with her brother and his boyfriend for leaving her out she’d grabbed a few things she thought she might need, including her ever faithful grappling hook and hopped into her car and followed them. Candy had groggily asked her where she was going but Mabel had just told her to go back to bed. Candy was one of the few people who didn’t know about Bill’s situation and explaining it now would’ve taken too long.

When she reached the Northwest Manor Dipper’s car was parked out front empty. After parking next to it, Mabel went up to the door only to find it was locked, not all that surprising really. She had to spam the doorbell for a solid five minutes before an exhausted looking servant answered.

“Um I’m Mabel Pines, my brother Dipper is here and might be in danger if you don’t let me in,” she said.

“Sorry but it’s the middle of the night and the master of the house is sleeping. If you come back tomorrow morning you might get in but not tonight,” the servant said. As he was about to close the door in Mabel’s face Pacifica suddenly showed up pushing him to the side.

“Oh my gosh Mabel what are you doing here?” she asked.

“I’ve come to possibly save my brother and his boyfriend. And don’t you go trying to leave me out of this too, I have every right to know what’s going on.”

During the drive down here, Mabel had gotten the surefire feeling that her twin was in danger and needed her help. They didn’t really have the fabled twin-telepathy but sometimes she just _knew_ when Dipper needed her, and now was one of those times.

“All right, fine come in,” Pacifica said shooing away the disgruntled servant who seemed more than happy to leave. “I should’ve known you would figure out something was up.”

“So Eddie’s here and Dipper and Bill went to go confront him?” Mabel asked once she was in the house.

“Yeah, they’ve been up there for a while now and I’m beginning to get worried. They should’ve been able to finish what they were planning on doing by now.”

“What were they planning on doing?” Mable was vexed that they hadn’t even confided in her their possible plans either.

“They were uh, planning on killing him and stealing his rune book.”

That was a plan Bill would come up with. Dipper would never want to kill anyone. But he might agree to it if Bill convinced him to.

“Okay where are they now? Take me there.” Mabel needed to save her brother she just knew it. She didn’t have time to waste being mad at him for leaving her out right now. But he would definitely be getting an earful later.

“All right fine, I was about to go check on them anyway,” Pacifica said with a sigh before waving Mabel deeper into the house.

She led Mabel up some stairs and through a few corridors before pausing at the entrance of one. “They should be in the last room on the left of this hallway,” she said.

“All right, let’s go then,” Mabel said taking the lead. Pacifica hesitated but Mabel shot her a stern look and she followed.

Being sneaky just in case, she reached the last door on the left and pressed her ear up against it. She could hear muffled voices coming from inside.

“…just came up with an idea for a fun little game we could play.” An unfamiliar voice was saying, probably Eddie.

“R-really what?” Dipper’s voice said. He sounded scared and definitely unhappy. She’d been right, he was in trouble.

“Well as you might know I like to torture my little slave until he begs me to stop, it’s funny to listen to. Now I was thinking I could do that again, only this time when he begs me to stop I’ll kill you beforehand. Now doesn’t that sound like fun? So how ‘bout it little slave, wanna play? Or do you want to skip the torture and just have me kill your Pine Tree right now?”

There was a long pause where Mabel had to force herself to contain her fury. During which she tried to open the door but it was locked.

“They have my key, and Mom and Dad would never let me borrow theirs,” Pacifica whispered to her when she turned to look at her.

Angry and worried about Dipper, she put her ear back to the door. She couldn’t reveal her presence by knocking or trying to break in, she would have to find another way in. But at least in the meantime she knew Bill wouldn’t let Eddie hurt Dipper.

“Don’t hurt Pine Tree.” Bill sounded absolutely miserable and defeated. It broke Mabel’s heart, she’d never heard him sound like that before.

“Ah well, we’ll see how just how long you’ll be willing to keep saying that then.” Eddie sounded entirely too pleased with himself. Mabel wished she could punch him in face.

“Wait, you can’t…” Dipper began but was cut off by something.

“Hold still you moron, or I might accidentally shoot you and ruin our little game,” Eddie said. “Oh and by the way it was very kind of you to bring such a pretty gun. Did Pazi give it to you by any chance?”

“You gave them a gun?” Mabel whispered angrily to Pacifica who was still standing beside her with her ear also pressed to the door.

“Yeah, they asked for it. And well Eddie’s scary…” Pacifica whispered back but Mabel stopped listening to put her ear back to the door to hear what was going on.

“There now that you can’t disrupt my spell casting anymore, let’s get on with the game, shall we?” Eddie was saying.

“Wait no, you can’t please,” Dipper pleaded.

Mabel didn’t want to listen to anymore, she had to help them. “Does this room have a window?” she asked Pacifica.

“Yeah but it’s several stories high, there’s no way we could climb up to it,” Pacifica said as they moved away from the door.

“That’s what you think,” Mabel said pulling out her trusty grappling hook as they started back down the hall.

“Wait maybe we should call the cops instead,” Pacifica said. “I mean like he has a gun and is threatening to use it, we could get him arrested for that.”

“All right fine call them, but it’ll take them a while to get down here. And I refuse to let that monster torture Bill for that long.”

As they ran down the stairs and exited the building Pacifica did just that, using her ever present cell phone.

“Do you know which window is the right window?” Mabel asked as they started circling the building. There were a ton of windows everywhere finding the right one might be hard.

“I think I know which window it is,” Pacifica replied. “But he has a gun what do you plan to do about that?”

“I’ll figure something out when we get there.”

Once they were on the other side of the building Pacifica grabbed Mabel’s wrist. “There see that window that has the black curtains? That should be it,” she said.

 It was the only window with black curtains, the rest either had none or had what looked like white curtains in the full moon’s bright light.

Mabel carefully aimed her grappling hook at the decoration underneath the window. She had to be careful not to break it, she couldn’t give up the element of surprise yet.

The first shot missed and pulling back the rope seemed to take hours but she knew it was only a few seconds. The second shot hit it but didn’t latch on to anything, she was on the verge of panicking. She took a deep steadying breath before firing the third. The time it finally latched on.

“Yes finally,” she exclaimed as she gave the rope a few tugs to make sure it was steady, it was. “Okay I’m going to go first. You follow a few feet behind me.”

“This is dangerous, maybe we should just wait for the cops after all,” Pacifica said worriedly.

“I can’t do that, he’s hurting Dipper and Bill right now, I have to stop him,” Mabel said already pulling herself up on the rope, she knew Pacifica would follow her.

Luckily over the years she’d become a fantastic rock climber and scaling the face (or more accurately the rear) of the Northwest Manor was cakewalk. She reached the window in less than a minute. Looking down she saw Pacifica was just staring to follow her up, much more slowly but still coming at a steady pace and would be there soon.

Taking a deep breath Mabel forced herself up opening the window, which thankfully wasn’t latched. She then slipped quietly inside behind the curtains.

Holding her breath, she moved the curtains enough for her to peek through them. Luckily the man dressed in black who she assumed was Eddie had his back to her. Dipper was handcuffed to the bed’s wooden frame, Eddie had a revolver pointed casually at him without even looking.

Bill though seemed to be in the worst shape. He was kneeling on the ground, hovering above his head was one of those weird rune things Mable knew Eddie used. In the space between him and Eddie was another one, it was glowing red hot and every few seconds Eddie would renew it. Mabel didn’t know exactly what was going on with the runes but Bill looked like he was in pain. He was overly pale and had his head bowed, unwilling or perhaps unable to look up at Eddie.

First thing she had to do was get the gun out of his hand so he couldn’t shoot Dipper. And she had to do it fast before he noticed her. So, taking a deep breath she moved out from behind the curtains. She tiptoed up behind him. Wrapping one arm around his neck in a strangle hold she grabbed his wrist holding the gun with her other hand, twisting it so that the gun fell to the floor was a loud clatter.

Eddie made a choking noise as he struggled against Mabel’s grip. But she’d taken several self-defense classes while in high school as well as taken part in multiple physical activities, meaning she was rather strong. Eddie on the other hand was thin and lanky underneath his baggy black clothing, probably too focused on his magic to care much about physical strength.

“Mabel, where’d you come from?” Dipper asked, pulling against the handcuffs chaining him to the bed.

But she didn’t have time to answer that as Eddie continued struggling against her. Even if she was strong Eddie was still at least as heavy as she was, and he was very determined to get away.

Luckily Pacifica choose that moment to arrive. Seeing the situation, she reacted instantly, picking up the gun that had fallen to the floor. “Freeze,” she said, voice shaking a little as she pointed the gun at Eddie.

Like any smart person would when confronted with the barrel of a gun, he ceased struggling. “You can’t fucking do this to me,” he said, gasping for breath under Mabel’s tight hold.

“We can and we will, so uh don’t move.” Pacifica sounded unsure of herself as the gun shook in her hands. It was obvious she had no idea what to do next, neither did Mabel for that matter.

Knowing the threat of the gun would probably keep him steal Mable released her his neck, as she stepped back. She stayed close prepared to grab him again if he tried something.

“Shoot him.” The spell holding Bill captive had apparently worn off with its caster’s distraction as Bill stood up, his eyes filled with hate as he glared at Eddie.

Eddie started moving one of his hands, casting another rune, before Mabel grabbed his wrist. He tried to pull his hand away, but she squeezed hard, probably hard enough to cause pain if she had to guess. “Let go of me,” he almost growled. “I’m a powerful necromancer, you can’t do this to me.”

“No, hold him still,” Bill said as he approached with an evil inhuman grin on his face. The look on his face reminded Mabel that even though he was trapped in a human body he was still a demon from another dimension. “I’m going to kill you _real_ slow, I’m going to make you wish you had never been born.”

“Bill…” Dipper said.

Bill jumped a little as he turned to look at Dipper. “Oh sorry Pine Tree, I’ll free you and then I’ll kill him.” Bill walked over the nightstand, grabbing the key from where it lay on top. He then walked over and freed Dipper from the handcuffs. He then brought the handcuffs over and with Mabel’s help handcuffed Eddie’s hands together despite his struggles.

“Uh maybe we shouldn’t kill him,” Dipper said, rubbing at wrists. “I mean like we have him at our mercy so…”

“Hmmm, maybe you’re right Pine Tree, I can prolong his suffering a lot longer when I have my old form back. And make it a whole lot worse.”

“The cops should be coming soon anyway,” Pacifica said. She was still pointing the gun at Eddie, probably the only thing keeping him from struggling more. “We’d be in trouble if you killed him.”

As if summoned by the mention of them Mabel heard the distinct sound of police sirens closing in fast.

“Fine, I won’t kill him yet, but I will do this.” Bill pulled out a knife he’d kept hidden in his pocket. Using the hilt, he hit Eddie in the side of the head with. Eddie collapsed to the ground in a limp heap. Bill crouched down beside him, grabbing one of Eddie’s hands he bent the fingers back until there was an audible pop. He then did the same to the other hand to.

Mabel flinched at the sound of breaking bones. She hadn’t expected that and might’ve tried to stop Bill from doing that if she’d known it was about to happen.

“Okay, now Pine Tree help me find that book before the cops get here,” Bill said as if nothing strange had happened.

“What the fuck was that Bill?” Dipper asked, clearly also astonished.

“He can’t use his magic if his hands are maimed. He’s just lucky I’m not cutting off his fingers. Now come on, we need that book so you can free me and I can get my proper revenge.”

Dipper reluctantly moved to do that.

“Wow, that was quite something,” Pacifica commented as the boys started searching the room. She shakily placed the gun on the bed. With Eddie unconscious and handcuffed anyway it was no longer necessary.

“Ah I found,” Bill exclaimed triumphantly as he pulled something out from the drawer to the bed’s nightstand. It was book, it looked bigger and thicker than any normal book should. Walking over Mabel could see that it had more of those rune things on the cover.

“Wow,” Dipper said as he took it from Bill’s hands. “You think I could learn to use this?”

“I hope so,” Bill said. “If you can’t I’m stuck like this forever.”

“All right, I’ll uh try my best.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally I was planning on an epilogue where Dipper uses the magic he learned from the rune book to free Bill, but I'm just not feeling it. I can't write it in a way that makes it feel good and not forced. And after I had so much trouble writing the end of this chapter I figure it wasn't worth it to try to force myself to do it anyway. So, sorry about that.
> 
> But anyway thank you to everyone who's read this story, especially after the hiatus. Thank you to everyone who's commented and left kudos. Even if I lost steam towards the end this story still means a lot to me, it was the first piece of writing I liked enough to put up where other people could read it. I was very pleasantly surprised when other people ended up liking it too. It was when I was working on this that I decided that writing is definitely something that I plan on doing for the rest of my life. So even if this story does have flaws I'm still proud of it. Once more, thank you to everyone who read it, I really appreciate it.


End file.
